EXCLUSIVE
DONNIE Munro, the former lead singer with Runrig, has turned down the opportunity to stand in Labour's safest Scottish seat and will now seek the nomination to the Scottish Parliament for Ross, Skye and Inverness West.
Mr Munro's decision will clear the way for Frank McAveety, leader of Glasgow City Council.
He is now the most likely candidate to win the male nomination in the paired constituencies of Glasgow Shettleston and Baillieston, although the former MP Mike Watson, now Lord Watson, could be in with a shout. Margaret Curran, a lecturer in community education, is the favoured candidate for Baillieston.
Mr Munro, who was Labour's parliamentary candidate in Ross, Skye and Inverness West at the General Election, was invited to stand in the Shettleston constituency in Glasgow by prominent constituency party members.
Senior party members were committed to ''working their butts off'' to deliver the seat for him, but yesterday he ended weeks of speculation when he announced he intended to stay in the Highlands.
Mr Munro, presently the director of development at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college in Skye which is a partner in the University of the Highlands and Islands, reached the decision in spite of contrary advice from a raft of Government Ministers and special advisers, who urged him to accept Shettleston's invitation.
They believed he deserved a rock solid seat and was an ideal candidate to present a different face of New Labour in Glasgow. Mr Munro made clear that he was flattered to be asked to stand in Shettleston but was committed to standing in the Highlands.
He said: ''I was extremely honoured to have been invited by the local members to consider seeking the nomination in the paired constituencies. I gave the offer serious consideration but despite its attractiveness and my own ties with Glasgow - and indeed my family's ties with the constituency - I am truly committed to victory for New Labour in the Highlands and Islands.''
Mr Munro added: ''My membership of the Labour Party has everything to do with the Highland and Island communities and I am determined to seek to bring these community values into the political process.''
While the Shettleston nomination would have guaranteed Mr Munro membership of the Scottish Parliament, staying in the Highlands will present him with a much more difficult contest.
Councillor John Farquahar Munro, the Liberal Democrat candidate, is a popular politician and has the advantage of the backing of Charles Kennedy, the constituency MP.
It is more difficult to predict the chances of the SNP candidate, Jim Mathers, a successful West of Scotland businessman who appears to be emerging as the ''unlikely favourite'' for the SNP nomination ahead of Ullapool hotelier Jean Urquhart, who will have the backing of the SNP machine.
Norman MacAskill, Labour's Highland organiser, welcomed Mr Munro's decision to stay in the Highlands, although many of the party's apparatchiks would have preferred him to head south.
Mr MacAskill said: ''Donnie played a great part in Labour's advance at the General Election. It will please many that he's decided to seek the nomination here.''
Mr Munro's decision will now leave the party organisers with ''collateral damage from the pairing'' in the Highlands. Caithness and Sutherland - with which Ross, Skye and Inverness West is paired - still wants to select James Hendry, its candidate at the General Election, but this will not be possible unless the pairing arrangement is changed. Alternatively Mr Hendry might stand in another constituency.
If the pairing arrangement remains unchanged, at least four women will seek the nomination for Caithness and Sutherland. Mairi Thornton, an NHS administrator from Achiltibuie in Wester Ross, is understood to present ''a strong challenge''.
Labour's election machine is working to secure a seat in the Scottish Parliament for Peter Peacock, the convener of Highland Regional Council. He will not stand for election but will have to depend on a prominent position on the addition members list.
