Dhaka  - Bangladesh votes in national elections Monday to return the South Asian nation to democracy in the New Year, ending two years of rule by a military-backed interim administration.

The election is to bring about change in political culture - a culture of hostility and mistrust - as the military-backed government on its installation in early 2007 promised qualitative changes in politics and governance.

But political analysts remained sceptical whether the parties, which expressed fear of falsification in voting, are ready to accept the people's verdict if they are defeated in the landmark poll.

Top leaders of both major parties alerted their supporters to "vote rigging" even though the authorities had prepared an apparently credible voters roll of 80 million electors, with photographs.

The country remains as divided as ever between the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by two former premiers - Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Khaleda Zia respectively - said one analyst.

"We have to wait until the election is over to see to what extent the parties have changed their attitude towards their opponents," said Ataur Rahman, a professor of political science at Dhaka University.

While it was good that there had been no pre-election violence - reflecting a few changes in the politics - this was not enough, he said referring to post-election violence in many developing countries like Zimbabwe and Kenya. "It is very important in democracy that the parties accept the election results."

The Secretary General of the United Nations Ban ki-moon in a statement Saturday urged Bangladesh's contesting political parties "to be responsible" and accept the people's verdict.

As electioneering formally ended at Saturday midnight, the parties were busy calculating their vote banks to grab majority seats in the 300-strong parliament to form next government in early January.

Nobody could cleanly predict which alliance would bag the majority seats in parliament, in a race confind to the two old rivals, Hasina and Khaleda, who ruled the country by turns for 16 years since 1990, after the ouster of military dictator Hussein Muhammad Ershad.

The Awami League, which forged an electoral alliance with Ershad's Jatiya Party - third largest party in the eighth parliament - was still considered favorite, given the anti-incumbency factor of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance, which had an overwhelming two-third majority in last parliament.

Despite being accused of massive corruption and helping rise of Islamists during its tenure, the BNP-led alliance gained ground by exploiting the failure of the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed, which suspended civil and political rights for most of its two years.

The military-backed government was installed in the backdrop of serious chose over power struggle between the AL and BNP in late 2006 after the BNP handed over power to a controversial administration that failed to conduct the election originally scheduled for January 2007.

It was postponed because of the promulgation of the state of emergency, which was lifted completely only two weeks ahead of Monday's elections, being contested by as many as 1,555 candidates.

The parties presented ambitious election agendas for the more than 150 million people - most bitterly poor - to be achieved in next five years.

But they did not mention how these would be financed, nor the skills and technologies needed to translate their dreams into reality.

Food security, subsidy in agriculture sector, elimination of corruption, enhancement of social security for the poor, reduction of poverty, infrastructure development, supply of electricity and an atmosphere conducive for investment are the main issues.

The interim government hopes for a free, fair election held under the critical eyes of more than 200,000 local and international observers.

The authorities have already deployed over 600,000 lawmen, including 50,000 army troops, to maintain order prior during and after polling. (dpa)