Palestinians in the West Bank voted Saturday in municipal elections that accentuated the deep divide between secular Fatah, which administers the West Bank, and Islamist Hamas, which rules over the Gaza Strip.
Fatah are accusing Hamas of undermining the Palestinian democratic process and stifling democracy by refusing to hold elections in Gaza.
Their lingering, decade-long split remains an obstacle to providing a unified Palestinian voice in peace negotiations with Israel.
Voting for several hundred municipal councils opened at schools across the West Bank at 7:00 a.m. local time [0500 UTC].
Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, and Hamas, which runs Gaza, blamed each other for the vote not being held in the small coastal enclave.
Out of the major Palestinian political parties, only Fatah is participating.
Hamas did not present any candidate lists of its own, saying the vote would only add to divisions. Polls for the 800,000 eligible voters closed at 7:00 p.m. with final results expected on Sunday.
Hamas said The Palestinian Authority had made a unilateral decision to go ahead with the vote before an agreement on a legal framework had been reached.
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Despite multiple Palestinian factions boycotting the vote, "municipal elections are better than nothing" in a country where "the situation is unlike anywhere else in the world", Zina Masri said to Reuters.
The vote is boycotted by Palestinian group Hamas, which said the inter-Palestinian reconciliation should be achieved first before holding the polls.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah says Hamas prevented its members from taking part in the election.
The last Palestinian legislative election was held in 2006 in which Hamas scored a surprise victory, laying the ground for a political division and prompting a brief infighting in Gaza in 2007.
Abbas, 82, is now 12 years into what was to be a four-year term and is an unpopular leader according to opinion polls.
He met US President Donald Trump in Washington on May 4 and is expected to do so again when Trump travels to the Middle East later this month.
After the 2006 election, the worldwide community refused to deal with any government in which Hamas participated until it renounced violence and recognised Israel and past peace agreements.
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