Polling began peacefully across Bangladesh Monday to elect the country's 9th Parliament amidst toughest security, election officials said.

They said polls started at 8 a.m. and will continue up to 4 p.m. without break.

No untoward incident was reported in the first hour.

More than 81 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to elect a 300-member Parliament out of which the elections for 299 seats are being held on Monday and the election for the other one seat was postponed to be held on Jan. 12 due to the death of one candidate.

Witnesses said hundreds of men and women were seen standing in queue at different polling centers in capital Dhaka to cast their votes.

Over 600,000 security personnel, including nearly 50,000 military troops, built up an unprecedented security bulwark across the country to ensure peaceful voting.

There are 35,216 polling centers across the country for holding the elections.

The general election, previously scheduled for Jan. 22, 2007, was canceled after the declaration of state of emergency on Jan. 11 by President Iajuddin Ahemd following the political turmoil over the issues of the polls between the two major parties which are Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia and Awami League led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

A total of 1,555 candidates from 39 political parties and independent are contesting the polls.

In the elections two mainline alliances, the Awami League-led grand alliance and BNP-led 4-party alliance, are tipped as the main power-contenders.

Over 200,000 local and more than 500 foreign observers will monitor the crucial elections across the country.

The last general election was held on Oct. 1, 2001 for the 8th Parliament. A total of 1,935 candidates from 54 parties and independent contested the elections won by BNP-led 4-party alliance and Khaleda Zia was elected as the prime minister.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2008)