(Adds Election Commissioner comments, refugee tragedy)

By Masud Karim

DHAKA, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Security forces and election monitors fanned out across Bangladesh on Sunday in hopes of ensuring a safe and credible election to return the country to democracy after two years of emergency rule.

An alliance led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League has the edge in Monday's parliamentary vote, some analysts say. Others predict neither she nor rival and fellow ex-PM Begum Khaleda Zia will have an immediate majority.

There were fears that jockeying for parliamentary support after the election could provoke violence and prevent the new government from tackling poverty and corruption in the South Asian nation of more than 140 million.

For the moment, security forces are concentrating on preventing violence at the polls after bricks were thrown at a motorcade and clashes injured nearly 200 on Saturday.

"Perhaps we have taken the toughest ever security precautions to ensure that balloting takes place peacefully, free from rigging, intimidation and threats," Noor Mohammad, Inspector-General of Police, told reporters on Sunday.

Across the country, troops patrolled streets and police dispersed to polling points.

The military-backed government -- which took power in January 2007 amidst political violence and cancelled an election due that month -- has deployed 50,000 army troops, 75,000 police and 6,000 members of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

"Small incidents are quite likely ahead of an election but these will not leave any impact on the voting tomorrow," Hasan Mahmud Khandoker, chief of the RAB, told Reuters on Sunday.

"We have imposed blanket security for the political leaders, candidates, poll officials and voters all over the country."

FOREIGN MONITORS

Aside from violence, Bangladesh elections have often seen widespread cheating and fraud, but for Monday, election rolls have been cleaned up, picture IDs provided, and 200,000 local and 2,000 foreign monitors assigned to check procedures.

In a national broadcast on Sunday night, Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Shamsul Huda asked people to turn out at the polls, saying they could trust the country's first digitised voters' list and other measures to ensure an honest vote.

"There would be no scope for any party or candidate to intimidate voters during and after the polls," and "each voter would be able to vote and return home safely," Shamsul said.

"We now hope that election day itself will pass off peacefully," said Cassam Uteem, Commonwealth Observer Group head.

"Once the result is known, it is vital that both the victor and the loser ... work together in the interest of the country."

In final broadcast speeches on Saturday, Hasina and Khaleda both said it was time to end confrontational politics in which strikes and violent street protests are common.

But at mass rallies they accused each other of corruption, vote-rigging and incompetence in heated rhetoric that has analysts worried about post-poll violence from the losing side.

Local media and analysts generally give Hasina a plus in the voting, but predicting a precise outcome is difficult.

Bengali weekly Kagoj said on Sunday Hasina's "grand alliance" may win 170 of 300 parliament seats, while Professor Sirajul Islam Chowdhury of Dhaka University did not rule out a hung parliament. "Support of independent legislators may be crucial for either woman if the election is close," he said.

Hasina and Khaleda alternated in power for 15 years through 2006. Analysts say their policy differences are small and what is critical to attract much needed investment and aid is stability and peace.

In a sign of the desperate economic situation of many Bangladeshis the winner must deal with, the Indian coast guard said on Sunday about 300 illegal migrants, most from Bangladesh, were feared dead after they jumped from a boat and tried to swim ashore in India's remote Andaman islands. (For related stories click on [ID:nSP347930]) (Additional reporting by Nizam Ahmed and Serajul Islam Quadir; Writing by Anis Ahmed and Jerry Norton)

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