"The process of formation of" - how to replace it?

Is it possible to replace the sentence "The process of formation of parties began" (political parties) with the sentence "The process of parties formation began"? Does that sound correct? Or is there any other way how to express that idea so it could soung natural, since when I read this sentence I can't stop thinkink that it looks like an ugly translation.

There are several ways:

1. The process of forming parties began - You just remove the second "of"
2. The formation of parties began
3. Party formation began