TODAY'S election in Bangladesh could possibly refloat the country's battered political system. But if the losers refuse to respect the result, the poorest of the world's large nations could sink into a new cycle of tragedy.
Already more than 20 people have been killed in sporadic attacks during the campaign, and leading candidates have made dire warnings about vote rigging.
The key battle is between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Begum Khaleda Zia, and the Awami League headed by Sheikh Hasina Wazed. The two party programmes differ little and share another characteristic.
In each case the founder of the party was assassinated. Ms Begum Zia's husband, President Ziaur Rahman, was killed in office by an army faction. So was Sheikh Hasina's father, Mujibur Rahman, the country's first leader.
The bitterness created by these killings has poisoned Bangladeshis politics. During elections polling stations are regularly taken over by the adherents of one party so that they can stuff the ballot boxes. During this campaign, each side has threatened to arrest the opposition if elected.
1991 was one of the few elections to be reasonably free and fair in the 25 years since independence left the BNP in power. Under the first past the post system, the party gained a majority of seats although it gained fewer votes than the Awami League. Government vote rigging in by elections became endemic.
In 1994, the Awami League responded with a series of hartals (political strikes) which eventually closed the country's only major port at Chittagong.
Faced with total economic collapse, Begum Zia agreed on March 27th to new elections supervised by an independent government under the retired Supreme Court Justice, Mr Habibur Rahman. The civil servant responsible for elections was also replaced.
Although foreign observers are hopeful that election officials will obey the law and that voting fraud will be kept to a minimum, there is deep concern over the outcome. This was, in part, prompted by a confrontation between President Biswas, whose constitutional role is non partisan, and the army chief of staff.
At the height of the election campaign in May, the President, a member of the BNP, dismissed two regional army commanders in what was seen as a partisan action. When the commander in chief, Lieut Gen Nasim objected, he was dismissed. Gen Nasim, after he mounted a brief show of force involving tank patrols on the streets, now faces a court martial.
The Bangladesh army, having stayed out of politics during the turmoil of the previous two years, has since accepted the fate of its former leader. It is generally expected to stay out of the fray, whatever the result.
But the party leaders have proved bad losers and ungenerous victors in the past. The defeated candidate is likely to cry foul, even if the result is fair.
Coalition seems the likeliest outcome of today's poll. There have been no credible public opinion surveys but Dhaka journalists expect the BNP to lose some seats to the Awami League, leaving both parties roughly even. The larger of the two will then have to gain the support of minor parties.