The Islamic Hamas movement Tuesday rejected the Palestinian government's decision to hold municipal elections in the territories in July.
"Hamas rejects any decision from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to hold the elections under the current circumstances," Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, told Xinhua, referring to political split between Gaza and the West Bank.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian government led by Salam Fayyad announced the decision to hold municipal elections in the Palestinian territories in July, including the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Ghassan Al-Khatib, a spokesman for the government, told Xinhua that the local elections would be held in all the Palestinian territories simultaneously, "but will be held in the West Bank" if the Hamas banned the voting in Gaza.
Abu Zuhri slammed Fayyad's government, saying that holding elections "is a national decision that nobody has the right to monopolize it."
The last round of local elections took place in 2005, and were stopped due to Palestinian political differences that followed Hamas' winning of parliamentary elections in 2006.
The West Bank-based government had originally scheduled the polls for July 2010, but postponed them to give another opportunity for Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party to reconcile.
In 2007, Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over the Gaza Strip.
The elections are supposed to include 290 constituencies in the West Bank and 25 in Gaza.
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