Burma’s two biggest pro-democracy parties running in the upcoming election said Monday they had managed to field just a tenth of the number of candidates standing for the main pro-junta parties.

As Monday’s deadline for registering candidates arrived, the government’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told AFP it would put forward more than 1,000 candidates in the country’s first poll in 20 years.

And the pro-junta National Unity Party said it would have more than 990 candidates. “So we think the USDP will be our main rival,” said spokesman Han Shwe.

But the National Democratic Force (NDF) and the Democratic Party (Myanmar), the largest pro-democracy groups, said they would field only about 200 candidates between them for the 7 November vote for some 1,200 national and regional seats.

More than 40 political parties have been given permission to stand in the polls, but some have expressed concerns over restrictions, including financial and campaigning constraints, intimidation of members and a tight timetable to register election hopefuls.

Thu Wai, chairman of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), said it would put forward about 60 candidates.

“We are still waiting for the candidate list from the regions, but we will not get as many as we estimated lately,” he said.

NDF chairman Than Nyein said the party, which is made up of former members of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, had about 140 candidates

The polls have been widely dismissed by the West as a charade to entrench military power. The junta recently conducted a major reshuffle within military ranks and several top members retired to contest the elections as USDP members.

A quarter of the legislature is reserved for serving military, in addition to army retirees who win positions as junta-backed civilians.

The government-favoured USDP has merged with the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a rich pro-junta group with up to 27 million members, including civil servants compelled to join for the good of their careers.

Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who has been detained for much of the past 20 years, won the country’s last election in 1990 by a landslide but was denied office by the junta.

She is barred from running this year because she is a serving prisoner and her National League for Democracy – which would have been the greatest threat to the junta – is boycotting the poll on grounds that the rules are unfair. The party has subsequently been disbanded by the ruling generals.