Voter registration begins for Palestinian local polls

The Palestinian Central Electoral Commission began registering voters on Saturday for municipal elections in July, its president said. "We began registering voters this morning," Hanna Nasser told a news conference, adding the process would continue until March 16.
Last month, the Palestinian Authority said it would hold local elections on July 17 in the Palestinian territories, but the rival Islamist Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip rejected the move as "illegal."