The leaders of the island’s two major political parties, P J Patterson and Edward Seaga, yesterday jointly denounced the violence that has marred the campaign for Wednesday’s general elections and have warned supporters that they will be turned over to the police if caught breaking the law.

Patterson’s People’s National Party (PNP) and Seaga’s Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are facing what is expected to be a close contest, after a campaign in which there have been a number of skirmishes between rival party members and at least three deaths directly linked to politics.

“We want to make it clear that we do not condone violence of any sort,” Seaga and Patterson said in their joint statement. “Anyone in our respective parties caught or found breaking the law will not only be severely disciplined by the party, but will be turned over to the police.”

Yesterday’s statement by the leaders followed Friday’s expression of concern by Britain, the United States and Canada – Jamaica’s biggest aid donors – about the election-related violence.

Britain’s high commissioner to Jamaica, Peter Mathers, on Friday delivered a message to Seaga and Patterson expressing the UK’s concern over reports of violent clashes between PNP and JLP supporters “some of which have led to loss of life”.

“The British government urges you to do all in your power to ensure that your supporters follow your example through to election day and beyond,” said the statement.

Those sentiments were underlined by the Canadians and the Americans and Ottawa gave the greenlight to its high commissioner in Kingston, John Robinson, to accompany Mathers to Patterson’s and Seaga’s offices to underscore their support for the message although Robinson carried no written text.

US Ambassador Sue Cobb, who is off the island, did not accompany Mathers and Robinson but they made clear that the message has her support – a position that could hardly have been made without the agreement of the State Department.

Mathers, whose message made clear that he was acting on instruction from the Foreign Office, told the Observer Friday: “Any influence that political leaders can bring to unruly elements of their supporters is to be welcomed.”

Britain, the US and Canada have been providing Jamaica with substantial help in strengthening its justice, law enforcement and electoral systems, and Robinson said that Ottawa would not like to see those efforts undermined.

“We would be unhappy if all this was vitiated by preventing people from going to vote and disrupting the election,” he told the Observer.

Friday night, the foreign minister, K D Knight, stressed Patterson’s non-confrontational approach to leadership and his constant calls to PNP supporters and Jamaicans generally, to refrain from violence.

“The three countries can be assured that there will be no deviation from our commitment to peace during this period and hereafter,” Knight said.

In yesterday’s joint statement, Seaga and Patterson said that leaders and candidates should ensure “that our utterances are calm and reassuring, not emotive, strident or threatening”.

“We as leaders need to stress that we denounce any activity not conducive to peace and unity,” they said, and urged Jamaicans to give support to the security forces.

But they stressed: “These efforts, however, will not be very successful unless each and everyone of us makes the commitment to be non-confrontational, to be civil towards each other, to recognise that after election day on October 16, we have to move forward as a nation… All sides have suffered. This madness must stop now.

“.The whole country must unite to make sure that on election day each voter is able to go to the polling stations without fear to cast his or her ballot freely.”