Voting started early Monday for the Georgian parliamentary elections as more than 3.6 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in the South Caucasus country.

More than 61,400 observers, including 401 from other countries, are monitoring the voting process which lasts from 8 a.m. (0400 GMT) till 8 p.m. (1600 GMT).

Fourteen political parties and two election blocs are taking part in the elections that will elect 150 members of parliament for the next four years.

Voters from within Georgia and abroad will vote to choose 73 members of parliament in as many single-seat constituencies through the format of the voted with majority votes taking the seat.

The voters will also vote for 77 proportionally-representative members of parliament through a mechanism known as the 5-percent threshold in Georgia.

Any of the registered political parties which garners over 5 percent of the total ballot will be allocated parliamentary seats in proportion to their shares of votes.

Previously, the majoritarian and proportional formats halved the elections for the 150-seat unicameral parliament of Georgia.

In 2012, the parties, both ruling and opposition, agreed to reduce to 73 seats the quota for majoritarian format and to increase to 77 seats the quota for proportional format.

Apart from the over 61,000 local observers, there are also 401 observers representing international institutions such as the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutes and Human Rights, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament, and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

The international observers, hailing from parliaments of 42 countries, have formed a joint monitoring mission that is scheduled to hold a press conference on Tuesday to announce a preliminary statement concerning the election results.

The Georgian Central Election Commission is expected to announce the official results on Oct. 20.

The ruling United National Movement party now has 119 of the 150 existing parliamentary seats. Three opposition parties which had passed the 5-percent threshold in the last parliamentary elections in 2008 split 14 seats (the Christian Democratic Movement party has six seats, the Labor Party has six, and the Republican Party of Georgia has two), while the remaining 17 seats are scattered among leaders of other opposition parties which grouped to form an election alliance back then.