Maputo — One of the ten minor parties allied to Mozambique's former rebel movement Renamo in the Electoral Union coalition on Monday formally announced that it will not stand candidates of its own in the provincial elections scheduled for 16 January, but will support Renamo instead.

The president of the Patriotic Action Front (FAP), Jose Palaco, told a Maputo press conference "because circumstances so dictate, FAP has decided not to register for the elections".

Renamo has already made it clear that it does not wish to renew its coalition pact with the minor parties, and will run on its own in future elections. This puts its allies on the spot, since they have neither the members nor the money to run campaigns of their own.

Palaco put a brave face on the situation, claiming that FAP had always worked in "joint actions", and so this time it had decided "to participate in the election campaign by supporting the candidature of Renamo".

He suggested that some FAP members might be elected to the future provincial assemblies, but as Renamo candidates.

Palaco said that the coalition pact with Renamo was still valid for the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, until 2009. Thus he believed "it won't be difficult to work together in the provincial elections".

Palaco also predicted that the severe difficulties facing voter registration, due to the late arrival of computer equipment, and the difficulties faced by inexperienced staff in handling the computers, meant that huge numbers of citizens would be disenfranchised.

He claimed that, at the current pace, no more than 25 per cent of the potential electorate could be registered by 22 November, the l;ast day of voter registration.

Despite this grim forecast, Palaco was not in favour of postponing the provincial elections. Instead, he wanted the registration brigades to abandon their computers, and switch to manual registration of the electorate.