Women voters, who represent 57 percent of the eligible electorate, started queuing in front of their designated polling stations from early in the morning.

Outside Nafissa bint al-Hassan school, in Sabah al-Salem tribal district -- dubbed the "mother of all districts" as the biggest in the number of eligible voters, women clad in black abaya robes lined up under a blazing sun.

"I insisted on being the first to vote. I am so happy that I could not sleep last night," said Zahra Ramadan Benbehani, 54, who arrived in a wheelchair pushed by her daughter.

But Benbehani said she had voted in favour of two "more capable" male candidates, although two of the competing 10 candidates in her constituency were women.

"It is my choice and that of my family. No one dictated my choice of candidates," she said.

Twenty-eight women are among 249 candidates running for a four-year term in the 50-seat legislative body, according to an interior ministry list.

Female candidate Fatima al-Mutairi arrived in the polling station wrapped with a Kuwaiti flag-coloured scarf over her black abaya.

"Even if I get only one vote, it will still be a testimony to tell the men and women of my country that I took on the challenge and that I have entered history," she said.

In Al-Jabirya district, 12 kilometers (seven miles) south of the capital, Buthaina Madi, a single businesswoman in her late twenties, was the first to cast her ballot although she was flying out of Kuwait one hour later.

"I did not want to miss this historic chance despite my trip. This is an historic event and I do feel the victory achieved by Kuwaiti women," said Madi, who was dressed in Western clothes.

Mona al-Baghli, a mother in her thirties, said she wanted to be among the first women to vote in "this celebration of democracy".

"This is our right and they have been very late in granting it to us," she said.

Despite winning full political rights a year ago, some female candidates said they faced intimidation during the campaign. One of them said she had even received death threats which forced her to withdraw her candidacy.

The election is being held against the backdrop of a political crisis between the government and parliament that led Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah to dissolve the chamber on May 21.

It was the fourth dissolution since 1976.

The elections followed the fiercest campaign in 44 years of Kuwaiti parliamentary democracy, as the opposition bids to boost its reformist agenda, which includes slashing the number of constituencies as a way to eradicate corruption.

Opposition candidates charged during the campaign that vote-buying by their pro-government rivals was rife.

The 340,000-strong electorate was voting at 94 polling stations in public schools, 47 each for men and women who vote separately under the election law. Of the total of 341 voting booths, 182 were reserved for women.

Polling is due to close at 20:00 (1700 GMT), with the first results expected by midnight (2100 GMT), as votes are still counted manually.