GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Gaza headquarters of the Central Elections Commission reopened Tuesday and will start work Wednesday, officials said.
CEC director Jamil Khalidi received keys for the Gaza City office a day after the commission's chairman Hanna Nasir lamented its closure.
Nasir said Monday that the Hamas-led government had failed to reopen the elections offices despite pledging to do so two weeks earlier.
At a news conference Tuesday, CEC member Yasser Moussa thanked the Interior Ministry in Gaza for reopening the building and said he hoped elections would be held as scheduled in May.
Fatah and Hamas agreed to hold elections within a year in their reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo in May 2011.
Factions also agreed to form an interim government of technocrats to oversee preparations for the vote, but the administration has yet to be established and the West Bank and Gaza remain divided under rival governments.
Fatah leader and President Mahmoud Abbas met with Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal in Cairo in November to try and revive the stalled process of reconciliation.
The party leaders pledged their commitment to unity and several committees were formed to implement the reconciliation agreement, but the parties continue to spar over key tenets of the deal.
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