Its more than 1,000 islands sit aside the world's most important east-west shipping channel and its strategic location was appreciated by former colonial master Britain, which ran a military base there until 1976.
The Waheed administration alienated New Delhi last December by aligning with known India antagonists and terminating Indian group GMR's contract to run the international airport.
A new Chinese embassy which opened in 2011 has also raised eyebrows.
If no candidate secures a majority on Saturday, a run-off poll is scheduled for September 28.
Corrected Political unrest in February 2012 briefly threatened the country's vital tourism sector, which draws a million well-heeled visitors a year, following the ousting of former president Mohamed Nasheed.
Nasheed, a scuba-diving former democracy activist, won the Maldives' first free vote in 2008, but resigned last year after a mutiny by police officers.
The 46-year-old denounced it as a coup, saying he was forc