The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said on Monday it has "temporarily" halted voter registration just over a month after granting the electoral commission permission to work.
In a statement, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri cited various "obstacles" that needed to be resolved before the electoral commission could resume its work.
"Hamas and the government in Gaza have provided the Central Election Commission with all the facilities required for it to carry out its role with ease," he said.
"But there are many issues that represent obstacles," he said. "Therefore Hamas has decided to temporarily suspend the registration process until an agreement between the parties involved to remove the obstacles."
The statement lists a variety of alleged obstacles, including the arrest of Hamas members in the West Bank and a failure to carry out registration in the Palestinian territories and abroad at the same time.
It also says no agreement has been reached on dealing with the "large number" of unregistered Palestinian voters in the West Bank and Gaza who do not have identity cards.
And it criticizes the selection of election commission officials, as well as the civil society bodies that are meant to oversee the registration process.
Hamas granted the commission permission to begin its work in Gaza on 28 May, with the goal of updating a voter register that has been untouched since 2006.
The voter registration is part of preparations for legislative and presidential elections called for under a reconciliation deal signed by the rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah last year.
Ahead of the elections, the two movements were supposed to agree on a consensus government of independents to pave the way for a vote, but talks on the composition of the government have broken down on several occasions.
The elections commission reopened its Gaza offices in January but could not begin work on updating the voter lists without Hamas' permission.
After receiving permission to begin its work in late May, it started opening offices and recruiting employees and had been due to begin the work of actually registering individual voters on Tuesday.
