The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance of former prime minister Khaleda Zia enforced the eight-hour blockade, which ended at 2 pm (0800 GMT).
In elections since 1996, the sitting government has stepped down before the vote to allow a neutral caretaker government to oversee the polling. The system was designed to prevent the party in power from attempting to manipulate the vote.
But, the current coalition, led by the Awami League, scrapped that system after a court ruling in June 2011. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has alternated power with the Awami League through recent election cycles, has decried the move.
A passer-by was beaten to death when activists from rival political groups clashed in the southern part of the capital Dhaka, police officer Abu Bakar Siddique said, adding it was not clear which group was responsible for the killing.
Clashes between supporters of the blockade and activists of the Awami League left a local leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the BNP, dead in Chauhali sub-district of Sirajganj, some 150 kilometres north-west of Dhaka, the party said.
A police officer confirmed the activist died at a local hospital. Opposition activists clashed with police in Dhaka and, elsewhere, set fire to vehicles, put barricades on national highways and burnt tyres and threw bricks and home-made bombs during the blockade.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the picketers, who clashed with officers and anti-blockade activists from ruling Awami League party in different places. As many as 100 opposition activists were detained.
Schools, shopping malls and businesses remained closed while traffic in the busy streets of capital Dhaka was thin.