HAGATNA, Guam -- On the distant Pacific island of Guam, nearly a day's plane ride from Washington, a few thousand voters seized center stage Saturday in the race for the United States Democratic presidential nomination.

Early turnout for the Democratic caucus was low as temperatures hovered around 32 Celsius (90 Fahrenheit), but picked up strongly as the day wore on.

"As of noon, nearly every village has exceeded the expected number of voters. By 2 p.m. the party had to send additional ballots for these villages," said Joshua Tenorio, who heads Barack Obama's local campaign office.

When the polls closed, local party officials said they thought around 4,000 people had cast their ballots. Counting had not yet begun.

With only four party votes at stake, each is now crucial to the clash in which Obama leads Hillary Clinton by a narrow margin estimated at 1,738 to 1,599.

Results are expected around 1600 GMT Saturday.

Although there was no obvious pre-election favorite, political analyst Dr. Ron McNinch forecast Obama to take 65 percent of the vote.

McNinch, a professor at the University of Guam, said voter sampling showed Obama had a "cross-cutting demographic appeal in Guam and in a number of ways he has a better sort of connection to our public."

The caucus is the only opportunity Guam residents will get to influence the presidential outcome. The island's people, while US citizens, cannot vote in November's presidential election.

"We're a little island that doesn't matter most of the time because we're thousands of miles away from (Washington) DC," said local resident Tes Venzon.

"This political event gives us our chance to push for our own local issues, which are largely ignored by Washington."

Guam, a US territory since 1898, rarely steps into the limelight of US politics as it lies on the other side of the international dateline.

Its sudden high profile has prompted jokes from some commentators as the island is better known as a US military base and scene of some of the bloodiest battles against the Japanese in World War II.

The Western Pacific island of just 540 square kilometers (209 square miles) has about 48,000 registered voters, and residents wanted Obama and Clinton to address its political status and self-determination.

"In this situation in which every single delegate vote counts to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Guam suddenly feels its own political significance," said Guam Democratic Party chairman Tony Charfauros.

"We used to not get this kind of national attention, but when the caucus started coming up, all the issues affecting Guam suddenly received attention in the nation's capital."

Neither Obama nor Clinton visited Guam ahead of the vote but both vowed to address local issues, such as the relocation of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa in Japan and war reparation claims.

The troop transfer plan has been a major campaign concern. The US military owns nearly one-third of Guam, base of the largest US naval bases in the region. The island hopes the buildup will solve its economic woes.

Obama has pledged that local contractors would get the lion's share of the upcoming construction work to build homes and offices for the arriving forces.

His campaign has insisted that the Illinois senator, born in Hawaii, has an instinctive understanding of the problems facing the tiny territory.

Apart from the island's four delegates to the party's nominating convention in August, it also has five so-called superdelegates who can vote for whomever they like.

One of them is Madeleine Bordallo, the island's only representative to the US Congress, who has yet to take sides.

The local Pacific Daily News estimates Clinton and Obama will get at least one each of the superdelegates.