Delegates on Monday convened for the U.S. Republican Party's national convention, a made-for-TV spectacle that is expected to nominate Mitt Romney as the party's standard-bearer to challenge President Barack Obama in the presidential election.

The event is being held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, an arena in downtown Tampa that has been converted in the past months to seat 2,286 delegates and 2,125 alternate delegates. About 15,000 media representatives are credentialed to cover the event.

The main purpose or official business of the 2012 convention is to officially nominate Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, as the party's presidential candidate and U.S. Representative Paul Ryan as vice presidential candidate.

Romney is set to address the delegates on the last day of the convention.

The convention is also expected to adopt a new party platform which outlines the party's positions on major issues for the coming presidential elections. It will also adopt rules and procedures governing party activities, particularly the nomination process for presidential candidates in the next election cycle.

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