DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh will end two years of army-backed rule with long anticipated elections next week that officials promise will be the fairest polls in the impoverished nation's history.

The December 29 ballot will end a caretaker government and fulfill its promise to restore democracy to the country, beset by coups and counter-coups since winning independence from Pakistan in 1971, by the end of 2008.
Political commentators say a left-of-center 14-party alliance led by ex-premier Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party is the favorite to win, but predict a close race.
""The general view is that the Awami League will win but there are a huge number of undecided voters,"" said Manzoor Hasan, director of BRAC University's Institute of Governance Studies in Dhaka.
Hasan said undecided votes could go to Sheikh Hasina's rival, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
In 1990, the two women joined forces to help oust the military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad and restore democracy in Bangladesh.
The Awami League and the BNP, however, have since often been accused of anti-democratic tactics, with both regularly boycotting parliament and staging national strikes when in opposition.
Ershad, meanwhile, who now leads a rival political party, could emerge as kingmaker if next week's polls result in a hung parliament.
Bangladesh's current regime -- headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed -- has been in power since January 2007 when the army stepped in, imposed a state of emergency and cancelled elections after months of political violence brought the country to a standstill.
Supporters of the Awami League and its allies had accused the outgoing BNP-led government of vote-rigging. At least 35 people were killed in the violence.
Ahmed's government promised when it took charge two years ago to clean up a corrupt political system, but after jailing its two female former premiers for a year on graft charges it has released them to take part in the polls.
Despite this, Monday's vote is widely seen as free and credible, with U.S. Senator John McCain this month describing them as the ""fairest in the world"" due to reforms undertaken by the caretaker government, when he visited Dhaka.
About 200,000 electoral observers -- including 2,500 from abroad -- will monitor the polls and have access to all 35,000 polling booths across the country.
""It will be the fairest vote in the country's history,"" election commission spokesman S.M Asaduzzamn said.
One third of all voters will be casting ballots in national elections for the first time, using photo ID cards installed as part of a digital electoral list created by the current regime.
The list took a year to complete and eliminated 13 million fake ""ghost"" voters from an electoral roll than now stands at 81 million.
In August, 1.2 million voters tested the system in mayoral elections in four cities and nine large towns. Although held under a state of emergency, the polls were seen as a success.
About 50,000 troops have been deployed across the country this week to keep elections peaceful after the state of emergency was lifted earlier this month.
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Bangladeshis walk past election posters of the Awami League in Dhaka on December 22, 2008.