Mc Leod to act as PM

Errol Mc Leod will act as Prime Minister from Monday when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar leaves Trinidad and Tobago for New York on government business, which includes an address to the United Nations.

This is Persad-Bissessar's third overseas visit since taking office in May this year. On each occasion he has appointed a different person to act.

UNC Chairman Jack Warner was handed the responsibility on her first visit overseas to attend the annual Caricom Summit in Jamaica. Congress of the People (COP) Leader Winston Dookeran acted during her recent visit to New York.

Mc Leod, who is the Minister of Labour and MP for Pointe-a-Pierre, is also the leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), one of the partners in the new government.

The appointment is in keeping with Persad-Bissessar's commitment to rotate the leadership whenever she travels overseas and to include leaders of the People's Partnership.

Other leadership partners are Makandal Daaga, leader of the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) and Ashworth Jack, of the Tobago Organisation of People (TOP).

They are not elected members of Parliament and unlikely to act as Prime Minister in the future.

Mc Leod, 66, first entered Parliament in 1976 as MP for Oropouche. He was one of the founding members of the United Labour front (ULF), which became the official opposition in that year.

The ULF eventually merged with other political parties to form the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), which formed the government in 1986. However the ULF component broke with the NAR and later formed the UNC, which was led by former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday.

Mc Leod also served as President General of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union until his retirement in 2008. He formed the MSJ in March 2009.

Persad-Bissessar is attending the United Nations General Assembly's 65th session and the Millennium Goals conference in New York and will deliver two addresses to the world body. The first will be on Tuesday.

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon met with Persad-Bissessar at the Caricom summit and invited her to address the UN.

Persad-Bissessar will leave Monday afternoon and return home on September 28.