Dhaka - Troops fanned out across Bangladesh Monday to assist regular security forces to maintain order during the country's local elections Wednesday, officials said.

"As many as 38,000 troops will be deployed across the country to aid the regular police force in maintaining order," a Home Ministry official said.

They will be stationed up to the remote areas as a striking force beside nearly 500,000 other security personnel to guard over 30,000 polling stations across the country to prevent violence on voting day.

The decision to deploy the troops came in the wake of sporadic violence after the December general elections, which were generally peaceful and credible, to restore the democratic system and end the two-year rule of the military-backed government of Fakhruddin Ahmed.

The election authorities feared a further slide in law and order during the voting in the sub-district councils, the most important tier of the local government, as grass-roots leaders from the two major political camps - the ruling Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party - faced off in the crucial ballot.

Home Minister Sahara Khatun pledged for a violence-free poll and warned of tough action against any attempt to spoil the election atmosphere.

"We will not allow anyone to vitiate the atmosphere," she told a law and order review meeting ahead of the polls.

Over 81 million voters are eligible to elect a chairman and two vice-chairmen, one of whom is a woman, at each of the 480 councils on a five-year tenure. (dpa)