A People’s National Party (PNP) election day worker and a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporter were arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearm and ammunition yesterday, after two guns and several rounds of ammunition were seized in Central Village during election day activities.

The guns, a .380 semi -automatic pistol and a Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol, were recovered in two separate incidents, one at the Jose Marti roundabout, the other from a stall in the community of White Marl, off the Mandela Highway.

According to the police, the first gun was found when a blue and white coaster bus carrying JLP supporters was stopped in the vicinity of the Jose Marti High School at about 11:00 am yesterday. The occupants of the bus, who were hanging out of windows and the door, were searched. One man, Vincent Smith, also known as “Carlton”, a 46 year-old labourer of Big Lane in Central Village was found to have the .38 pistol on his person.

Smith, who was recently released from prison having served most of a 21-year sentence for the same offence in the 1970s, was arrested and the bus was seized by the police.

And at about 12:30 pm, police on a routine patrol stopped a group of ‘suspicious-looking’ men when 64 year-old plumber, Samuel Thomas, also called “Slim” of China Town in White Marl, was caught as he attempted to hide a .45 pistol under a stall in the community. Thomas, an election day runner for the PNP, was subsequently arrested and charged.

The Central Village police are investigating.

And Trevor Bailey, a 29 year-old labourer from Pantry District, Crofts Hill, Clarendon, was also charged with illegal possession of firearm.

Lawmen held Bailey at a polling division after his actions aroused their suspicions. He was searched and a 9 mm pistol taken from him.

And Oneil Stewart, 24, of Fort George, St Mary was charged with possession of an offensive weapon in Annotto Bay at about 9:35 am. Cops from the Area Two highway patrol arrested him when a car in which he was travelling was stopped and an imitation firearm found in his possession.

The vehicle in which Stewart was travelling bore an electoral sticker for the JLP’s South Eastern candidate.