Opposition candidates have used the campaign to attack the emir's controversial decree granting women full political rights by the time the oil-rich country next goes to the polls in 2003. Despite the widespread opposition, Kuwaiti leaders -- who do not face election -- have called it a done deal.

"The question should be, will there be a sufficient majority in the next parliament to block the decree. I do not think so. I think the decree will pass," said liberal candidate and journalist Mohammadal-Saqr as he nervously watched voters queuing up at a polling station.

One of his opponents in a well-to-do constituency, Khaled al-Sultan, said he would vote against the decree if elected. Sultan belongs to one of Kuwait's leading trading families with wide business interests.

"I am against the content and shape of the women's rights decree," said Sultan, one of the leaders of the Islamist Salaf group.

The Emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has issued some 60 decrees, including laws aimed at liberalising the economy, since he dissolved parliament in May to end two years of internal crisis and paralysis resulting from weekly clashes between MPs and ministers.

But decrees issued by the emir when parliament is not in session require the approval of the new parliament. Many candidates, led by influential former opposition MPs, argue that most of the decrees, including those on women's rights, deal with issues that are not urgent and therefore are unconstitutional.

The unelected government is due toresign after the elections, to be replaced within two weeks when the new parliament meets.

Election rallies were dominated by allegations that the government had mishandled Kuwait's huge oil-generated wealth, prompting a debate remarkable for its openness in a region not known for public criticism of its rulers.

Only 113,000 men, 14 percent of the almost 800,000 Kuwaitis, have the right to vote in the country's ninth parliamentary elections since 1963. The electorate is just five percent of the 2.2 million people who live in Kuwait, where foreigners make up 65 percent of the population. Only Kuwaiti men born to Kuwaiti fathers can vote. Military and police personnel, Kuwaitis naturalised less than two decades ago and citizens less than 21 years old do not have the vote.