Maputo — A further four tiny Mozambican political parties on Thursday held a joint press conference to announce their "unconditional" support for the re-election of Armando Guebuza, presidential candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party.

The four are the Democratic Conservative Party (PCD), the Liberal Front (FL), the Independent Social Democratic Party (PASDI), and the African Union Party for the Salvation of the Mozambican People (UASPM). What these four groups have in common is that virtually nobody has ever heard of them.

Only Raul da Conceicao, leader of the FL, has ever had a public profile. He was once a leader of the Patriotic Action Front (FAP), which was one of the ten minor parties allied to the main opposition force, Renamo, in the Renamo-Opposition Union coalition. Thanks to the coalition, Conceicao won a seat in the 1999-2004 parliament.

But a faction fight broke out in FAP, and Conceicao was on the losing side. He left to set up the FL, which immediately plunged into deepest obscurity.

A week ago Conceicao was one of 15 minor party leaders who pledged their allegiance to Daviz Simango, mayor of Beira and presidential candidate for the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM). But now the FL has switched its support to Guebuza.

Conceicao admitted that the fault was his - he had decided to support Simango "in a precipitate manner", without consulting the FL National Political Commission. "I had decided emotionally to support Daviz Simango, but afterwards the party body decided to support Armando Guebuza", he said.

Conceicao appeared unhappy with this. "I may not agree with the decision, but it's the party's decision", he said. "In democracy, it's like that. The majority wins".

While the FL is giving its few members no advice on who to support in the parliamentary election, the PCD is backing both Guebuza and Frelimo. PCD leader Goncalves Magugule said this decision results from "a political and democratic partnership with Frelimo".

This partnership will come as a surprise to those who last saw Magugule at a gathering of minor parties on 7 October which called for the elections to be scrapped, and demanded that the international community impose "immediate economic and political sanctions" against Mozambique.

The leader of PASDI, Marcelino Afonso, said his party was backing Guebuza in order to ensure "continuity" in the development of the country undertaken by Guebuza since 2005.

The UASPM said it had compared the manifestos of the three presidential candidates, and decided that Guebuza's was the best. But in the parliamentary election it will be backing the PLD (Party of Freedom and Development), whose symbol of a turkey is perhaps the most absurd among the parties contesting this election.

The PLD was only registered as a political party with the Ministry of Justice on 30 June - which means that its participation in these elections is illegal. The electoral law states that only parties who were registered before the first day for delivering nomination papers (which was 1 June) may stand. In accepting the PLD's nominations for 10 of the 13 constituencies, the National Elections Commission (CNE) overlooked this article in the law.

UASPM leader Jose Nhamuzinga said the decision to support the PLD arose from a desire to "end the bipolarisation" of the Mozambican parliament between Frelimo and Renamo. But since the PLD campaign is invisible in most of the country, it is most unlikely that it will elect any deputies at all.

All four parties denied that they had been promised any money or other material support from Frelimo. "If we're supporting Armando Guebuza, it's not because we're short of money", said Nhamuzinga. "It's because his manifesto is in line with the reality of the country".

Asked why the parties had waited until three days before the end of the election campaign to announce their support, Nhamuzinga said "we were still analyzing the manifestos and consulting the grass roots".

Like previous announcements by minor parties in support of Guebuza, journalists were invited to this press conference by mobile phone text messages sent, not by the minor parties themselves, but by Frelimo.

Renamo too has adherents among the minor parties. On Thursday the Democratic Union (UD), a coalition of six tiny parties, announced that it is supporting the presidential bid of Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama.

One peculiarity about this announcement is that the UD includes the FL among its members.