The move came one day after the Ramallah-based Palestinian government decided to postpone the vote for four months. 

In a statement, the commission said it would return registration fees paid by the candidates. 

The decision is seen largely as a procedural measure after elections were officially postponed Tuesday. 

Local polls had initially been scheduled for Oct. 8 in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blockaded, Hamas-run Gaza Strip -- but a Ramallah court Monday ruled to hold the vote in the West Bank only. 

The polls would have seen Hamas and Fatah -- Palestine’s two main political movements -- directly compete for the first time in a decade.  

Hamas, for its part, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, blasted the decision to postpone the vote. 

"This decision by the [Ramallah-based] government is intended to prevent the scheduled holding of elections and merely serves the interests of Fatah," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday.