Thein Sein and more than 20 other military ministers in the governing junta officially resigned their military positions last week to run in the elections, which are expected to be in October.

Sein, a former lieutenant general, and the other ex-military leaders in government have set up the Union Solidarity and Development Party and registered its formal application with the electoral commission, a report in the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar said.

The USD is the military's mass participation organization that claims to have around 24 million members. Many analysts say people are either forced to join or join to improve their job prospects.

Also applying to register is the 88 Generation Student Youths, a pro-democracy group whose name comes from the 1988 student protests in Yangon, noted for brutal clashes with police and military that left hundreds dead.

Many of the group's leaders over the years have been put in jail for further demonstrations or are currently under arrest, despite their situation being highlighted by international human rights groups. The 88 Generation has also demonstrated over social and economic issues, such as rising fuel prices.

One of the members of the group who has her own party is the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. As leader of the National League for Democracy party she won a landslide victory in the last national elections, which took place in 1990. But the generals refused to acknowledge the results and power was never handed over.

Her party will be absent from the electoral roll because of laws passed this year disallowing people, such as Suu Kyi, with criminal records. She has spent many of the past 20 years under some form of arrest and detention and is currently under house arrest.

Her party decided, after much debate, not to register in protest over the laws, a decision Suu Kyi supported. But a recent statement by the party said members will continue to fight for social rights.

NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo said the party will have to be careful not to do social work under any name that had NLD in it.

"We won't take names like Social Aid Group NLD or Legal Aid Group NLD. If we took such names the authority concerned would not accept our registration by accusing us of conducting party activities under these names," he said.

Regional parties have also applied to register, including the All Mon Region Democratic Party and the United Democratic Party Kachin State.

Despite the military ruling the country since the 1960s, the junta has been fighting low-key battles with rebels in several regions, such as in the Karen area. Rolling out the election to these areas in an attempt to appear inclusive of the country could prove troublesome for the junta.

Last month a Myanmar ethnic rebel group warned the ruling military that clashes are inevitable in the run-up to a national election. The head of the Karen National Union, the political wing of the Karen National Liberation Army, joined the call by opposition groups to boycott the election.

Zipporah Sein, head of the KNU, said ethnic minorities shouldn't vote because Myanmar's 2008 constitution doesn't recognize ethnic diversity. She said the KNLA would fight any attempt by the ruling generals to force people to either join or form border guard militia that have been set up by the generals in some remote areas.

Regardless of how many parties are on the election ballots, civilians will never make up more than 75 percent of the country's parliamentary seats because 25 percent have been reserved for military appointments.

If former junta leaders are elected, then the military's effective representation could be a lot greater than their allocated quarter of seats.

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