Lines of voters were seen outside polling stations as the Maldives parliamentary elections commenced on Saturday morning, an official said.

There are a total of 302 candidates including 23 women vying for 85 constituencies. Of these the capital Male holds the largest number of constituencies at 13, with 7 on Addu and the remaining 65 scattered around various atolls.

There are also five voting stations abroad with two in Sri Lanka, two in India and one in Malaysia. There are also five voting stations in prisons, bringing the total number of ballot boxes to 473.

There are 240,652 eligible voters who are expected to finish casting their votes by the afternoon.

Voting commenced at 8 a.m. local time and will end at 4 pm, an election official told Xinhua.

"We are hoping for very peaceful voting and a free and fair election," said Mohammad Waheed, an official in one of the voting stations in the capital Male.

The total number of local election monitors is 1,920 and this will be augmented by two groups of international observers from the European Union and the Commonwealth who arrived in the Indian Ocean group of islands several days ahead of the polls.

Over 1,382 candidate representatives will also be keeping an eye on the voting process.

The parliamentary elections will be the first major test for President Abdulla Yameen who was elected last November. Currently the parliament is held by the opposition Maldives Democratic Party, and the polls are expected to be a tightly contested race.

The run-up to the elections have been steeped in controversy after the Supreme Court earlier this month handed down suspended prison sentences to the elections commissioner and his second in command.

The controversial ruling also removed the two from their posts, leaving a virtually headless commission to oversee the parliamentary elections.

The Supreme Court on March 9 issued a suspended six-month prison sentence for Elections Commission Chair Fuad Thaufeeg, and declared void the membership of the commission's chair and vice chair.

The prison sentence has been suspended for three years.

But the court also ordered the commission to make all arrangements for the upcoming parliamentary elections, and hold the elections on March 22 as scheduled.

The Maldives Supreme Court has repeatedly come under fire from the international community for failing to meet international standards and has been accused of attempting to undermine the independence of the Elections Commission.