The Palestinian cabinet on Tuesday announced a decision to hold municipal elections on October 8, according to a statement released by the cabinet.

The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, appointed a central elections committee to begin preparations for the upcoming elections.

It was unclear if the elections would include the besieged Gaza Strip, where Hamas has ruled since the movement’s victory in the 2006 general elections.

PA to hold municipal elections across the West Bank in October — I covered the last round of elex for @TheAtlantic: https://t.co/H6hG4EsoZT

— Grant Rumley (@GrantRumley) May 3, 2016

However, in a statement, Munir al-Jaghoub, head of the Fatah media committee, stressed that the Palestinian government must commit itself to a unified election across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, adding that without the Gaza Strip the elections would be incomplete and emphasized the need for a “national united voice.”

The last local elections that were held in 2012, which did not include the Gaza Strip, were steeped in allegations of corruption and political intimidation by Fatah officials and resulted in Hamas boycotting the elections.

Political divisions between Hamas and Fatah were cemented following Fatah’s defeat in Gaza’s general elections a decade ago and the subsequent fighting that ensued between the two parties as both struggled to merge control over the small Palestinian territory.

(MA’AN, PC)