Hamas accused the Palestinian Election Committee on Saturday of distorting the results of a round of municipal voting to make it appear that the ruling Fatah party, which came out ahead, had swept the poll.
Committee head Jamal Shobaki told a news conference on Saturday that Fatah won in 51 of 104 municipalities, and Hamas in 13. The remainder were taken by other factions or candidates.
The election committee intentionally avoided announcing that Fatah ran unopposed in some areas to make it appear its candidates had trounced Hamas, said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. He added, however, that Hamas would not officially challenge the results.
"The announcement by the local election committee was biased," Abu Zuhri said, according to the AP. "It was a maneuver on the part of the election committee to present the numbers in an indirect way to favor one faction, and we will tell our people the truth."
