Maputo — The Independent Party of Mozambique (PIMO) on Tuesday became the third of the country's minor parties to announce that it is supporting the re-election campaign of President Armando Guebuza.

Last week similar announcements were made by the Labour Party (PT), and by the Ecologist Party (PEC-MT).

PIMO, which is a thinly disguised Islamic party, had intended to run its own candidates for the presidential and parliamentary elections. But when the Constitutional Council, the body that vets presidential candidates, inspected the supporting signatures presented by PIMO leader Yaqub Sibindy, it found that many of them were forged.

Each presidential candidate must present at least 10,000 supporting signatures from registered voters. When the Council analysed the 12,610 signatures presented by Sibindy, it found that only 6,235 were valid. Some of Sibindy's supporters had signed more than once, some had signed for other candidates as well, some gave voter card numbers that were invalid or illegible, some gave names but no signature, and the same thumbprint accompanied, over and over again, the names of supposedly illiterate voters.

PIMO had no better fortune when it came to parliamentary candidates. The National Elections Commission (CNE) found that in none of the constituencies had PIMO submitted lists of candidates that met the basic legal requirements. To stand in a multi-member constituency, a party must present a list of enough valid candidates to fill all the seats in that constituency, plus at least three reserve candidates.

But so many of the PIMO candidates had documents (such as their identify card or their criminal record certificate) missing, or presented no documents at all, that none of the party's lists were valid.

A meeting of the PIMO National Council, which ended in Maputo on Tuesday, decided to throw its weight behind Guebuza and the ruling Frelimo Party. A statement from the meeting defended this choice as a means "of expressing our vote of confidence in the preservation of peace, and to continue making a constructive contribution to the sustainable development of Mozambique".

PIMO claimed that its policies are reflected in the Frelimo election manifesto, and that it would deliver its own manifesto to Frelimo "as an additional programme to fight against poverty".

In the ensuing press conference, Sibindy claimed there was nothing odd about being in opposition while supported the ruling party's election campaign. He cited as precedents leading members of the US Republican Party, such as Gen Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice, who had supported the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, in last year's American presidential election.

Frelimo had not offered PIMO anything, said Sibindy. His party's support for Guebuza was "unconditional". These words earned him a round of applause from the other members of the National Council.

AIM reminded Sibindy that shortly after the Constitutional Council had confirmed the CNE's rejection of all the PIMO parliamentary lists, the PIMO general secretary, Ibramurgy Magalhaes, had added PIMO's name to a list of tiny parties calling for a boycott of the general elections and even demanding that the international community decree sanctions against Mozambique.

Magalhaes had, at the time, declared that Sibindy's acceptance of the Council's ruling was his personal opinion and did not reflect feeling within the party. Now he has performed a volte-face.

Magalhaes claimed that his earlier position was taken at a time when the PIMO party bodies had not discussed the matter. Now they had, they were backing Guebuza and Frelimo, and he would loyally follow that decision.

The PIMO decision is unlikely to make much difference to the election result. In the 2004 presidential election, Sibindy won just 0.9 per cent of the vote, and PIMO took 0.59 per cent of the parliamentary vote.

Magalhaes told AIM that PIMO has about 128,000 members. Yet in 2004, only 28,656 people voted for Sibindy.