The Congress of SA Trade Unions and its affiliates are taking part in ANC election preparations, attending policy, list and manifesto meetings, it said on Thursday.

They had also created a "war room" and an elections office to be staffed by volunteers, Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini told a media briefing in Johannesburg, following a meeting of his organisation's central executive committee.

Co-ordinators from the 22 affiliates would work full time on the elections campaign, he said.

Cosatu hoped the list of names from which the party drew its public representatives after next year's election represented the working classes and the poor.

While it accepted that the ANC -- as a "broad church" -- also had wealthy members, it wanted the outcome to reflect that the majority of the party's supporters came from the working class and poor.

Cosatu was pleased with what it considered a significant, but not fundamental, shift to the left in ANC policy.

Dlamini said that instead of just vague talk, policies were firming up, with resolutions clear on job creation.

However, Cosatu was battling to get support for its request for a quota system that would give it a say over the allocation of some parliamentary seats, and had not yet finalised an election pact with its alliance partners -- the ANC and the SA Communist Party.

Asked whether it would support another term for Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Dlamini said it was up the president to decide, but "we would be very happy".