Armenian citizens will cast their votes on Sunday to elect members of the country’s parliament with the polling stations opening at 8:00 a.m. local time (4:00 a.m. GMT).

Some 9,000 policemen will be providing security at 1,975 polling stations across the country.

According to the data released by police earlier, some 2.5 million Armenians were registered as eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections.

Eight parties and one party alliance are participating in the elections.

On Friday, a total of 144 people were injured when balloons burned explosively at a rally of the Republican Party of Armenia in the capital Yerevan. The balloons were supposedly filled with helium, a gas that does not burn, but evidently some other gas had been used instead, Armenian media reported.