Final tally of votes in Wednesday's Palestinian legislative ballot showed that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has won 74 seats while the mainstream Fatah movement has garnered 45 seats in the 132-member parliament.

On Thursday, chief of the Palestinian Central Election Commission Hanna Nasser said that Hamas got 76 seats and Fatah got 43.

Election officials said that the final official results are expected to be announced on Sunday.

According to the Palestinian law, the party or faction that holds the majority of parliament seats will be asked to form the government.

Earlier in the day, Fatah members marched in the West Bank city of Ramallah and the Gaza Strip in protest against the movement's defeat in the legislative elections.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians headed to the polls across the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in their second ever parliamentary elections.

The first Palestinian legislative ballot was held in 1996.