Ken Ali

Er­rol McLeod, at one time the most pow­er­ful labour leader in the coun­try, last night ac­knowl­edged Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar as his leader as he moves clos­er to con­test­ing the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion.

McLeod, the for­mer pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) said he was pressed to re­turn to pol­i­tics by "the state of gov­er­nance in the coun­try." He de­clined to con­firm re­ports on the po­lit­i­cal cir­cuit he was slat­ed to con­test the Pointe-a-Pierre seat, one in which the com­bined op­po­si­tion vote out­num­bers that of Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), based on 2007 elec­tion fig­ures. Oil gi­ant Petrotrin is lo­cat­ed in the Pointe-a-Pierre con­stituen­cy. McLeod rep­re­sent­ed Petrotrin work­ers as OW­TU leader. He said he, like oth­er par­ties in the po­lit­i­cal "uni­ty" arrange­ment, has agreed on Per­sad-Bisses­sar as the prime min­is­te­r­i­al can­di­date.

McLeod's Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ) was as­signed two seats in the mul­ti-par­ty elec­toral al­liance. It could not be con­firmed whether La Brea was the sec­ond con­stituen­cy. McLeod, who was an Op­po­si­tion Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment from 1976 to 1981, said his or­gan­i­sa­tion "is close­ly re­lat­ed to labour." MSJ was formed in March 2009. He said its oth­er prin­ci­pal fig­ures would soon be iden­ti­fied. He said a gov­er­nance ac­cord had been ham­mered out by "com­mit­tee men and women" and was to be con­firmed by lead­ers of the re­spec­tive par­ties.

That pact lists the ideals of the var­i­ous po­lit­i­cal bod­ies. McLeod said he was "ex­cit­ed" about the pub­lic cam­paign and is look­ing for­ward to "the re­moval of (Prime Min­is­ter Patrick) Man­ning." He added he was keen on be­ing part of an ad­min­is­tra­tion in which there would be labour in­volve­ment. "I am con­fi­dent of our chances," said McLeod.

He is ex­pect­ed to speak at a uni­ty plat­form at Fyz­abad to­mor­row night. Last Thurs­day he was on a Con­gress of the Peo­ple's plat­form in Point Fortin. He re­tired in Sep­tem­ber 2008 af­ter a 20-year run as OW­TU chief.