Polling stations have opened in Syria in what the government is calling the first multiparty parliamentary elections in five decades.
The opposition has dismissed the vote as a sham and said it will boycott the vote for the 250-seat parliament.
The UN says that more than 9,000 people have been killed during a brutal crackdown on an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
The vote was delayed after the launch of a reform process.
The elections come three months after the adoption of a new constitution that allows the formation of political parties to compete with the president's governing Baath party and limits the president to two seven-year terms.
Nine parties have been created, and seven have candidates competing for a parliamentary seat.
Analysis
Damascus, on first glance, looks like any city going to the polls - election posters are plastered on every surface, from long walls to tall tree trunks.
New faces, with money to spend, smile from huge billboards.
For the government, this is proof of reform. For the opposition, it is a fraud to hold on to power.
The polls come three months after the ruling Baath party ended its 50-year monopoly to allow new parties to form.
But most new faces are known to be linked to the old.
Young campaign workers, busy planning for Monday's vote, were clearly engaged. But election day in Syria is expected to be another day of protests and violence.
Pro-regime parties led by the Baath are represented under a coalition called the National Progressive Front.
A total of 7,195 candidates have registered to stand for the 250 seats, state news agency Sana said.
Bashar al-Haraki, a member of the Syrian National Council, the principal opposition coalition, said the elections were a "farce which can be added to the regime's masquerade".
Violence has continued in Syria despite a ceasefire between government and the opposition forces which forms part of a peace plan mediated by the UN and Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan.
The army still has tanks and heavy weapons in cities and towns across the country and rebels are continuing their attacks on military convoys and army roadblocks that have cut off swathes of the country.
On Sunday, there were reports that fighting had erupted between rebels and Mr Assad's forces in the oil-producing eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor.
