THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Corporate Area leadership yesterday withdrew from bipartisan discussion on political violence with the PNP’s Region Three, in the wake of Thursday night’s gun murder of a key functionary of the JLP’s South East St Andrew constituency.

Sanjay Ebanks, who was the office manager for South-East St Andrew JLP candidate Joan Gordon-Webley, was shot minutes after he locked up Gordon-Webley’s constituency office and headed for his home, metres away on Anderson Road in Woodford Park on Thursday night.

The police reported that a car drove up and opened fire at Ebanks about 9:00 pm. He was hit in the left side and taken to hospital where he died yesterday morning.

The murder of the JLP worker yesterday increased tension in the already politically-charged constituency where several acts of violence have been reported in the current general elections campaign.

At the same time, Opposition Leader Bruce Golding has written to Prime Minister Portia Simpson, threatening to withdraw from any further bipartisan talks involving her People’s National Party (PNP) general secretary Donald Buchanan.

Golding’s letter comes after earlier expressing umbrage against Buchanan’s comments at a PNP rally that false accusations were being made by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that its motorcade had come under gun attack at Brandon Hill in West Rural St Andrew.

“I happened to have been there when the shots were fired. I saw with my own eyes the gashes of fire which emanated from the hillside the moment the shots rang out. So concerned for my own safety were the protective service officers assigned to me that they placed a bullet-proof vest on me. Is Mr Buchanan calling me a liar?” said Golding in his letter to Simpson Miller.

The opposition leader labelled Buchanan as “indisciplined” and “uncontrollable” and said he had taken an oath of silence on the issue so as not to incite anger among

his supporters.

Last week Friday, the leadership of both major political parties met and agreed to be exemplary in their conduct during the campaign for the August 27 general elections, especially during the delivery of platform speeches.

During a visit yesterday by a JLP delegation to the home of the slain South-East St Andrew JLP worker, Golding questioned whether the political code of conduct and an agreement that candidates refrain from inciting ill-feeling on political platforms was meaningless.

“I am concerned about the ineffectiveness of those structures to deal with matters like these. Those structures are not working,” Golding told reporters.

“Portia must rein in Mr Buchanan. He must be publicly reprimanded. Mr Buchanan’s statements are inciting and Mrs Simpson Miller, if she is to demonstrate the strength of her leadership, must reign in Mr Buchanan,” he added.

Gordon-Webley was yesterday visibly shaken as she reflected on the murder of Ebanks. “He was very, very reliable. The man was so meticulous in the way he carried out his duties. You could eat off the floor in that office the way he kept it clean,” said Gordon-Webley, on the verge of tears.

Ebanks’ sister, Sandra, was too grief-stricken to talk and moaned continuously. His father, Odlyn, was also saddened but could not hide his anger.

“All I know a lot of people going dead for it because the ‘John Crow’ dem kill mi son and him was not a bad boy,” the elder Ebanks said.

Golding, however, urged opposition supporters in the area to refrain from any acts of reprisal. “Despite the anger nobody must take part in any form of retaliation,” Golding told them.

Member of parliament for the constituency, Maxine Henry-Wilson, also condemned the incident and expressed her condolences to Ebanks’ relatives.

“The recent flare-up of violence in this constituency is not only most distressing, but demands the strongest possible condemnation,” Henry-Wilson said in a press release.

Meanwhile, the Peace Management Initiative called for political representatives to display maturity during the election campaign.

“The PMI expresses grave concern at the escalation of violence in communities that have been trying to rid themselves of their history of political violence and divisiveness. It therefore calls on political representatives to exercise their leadership role in reducing tensions by adopting less strident political statements and employing forms of campaigning less likely to incite violence,” a statement from the PMI said.

The PMI proposed that an urgent meeting be held with the four parliamentary candidates in Eastern St Andrew and South-East St Andrew constituencies to help reduce the political clashes in that section of the city.

Meanwhile, a Jamaica Labour Party rally which was planned for tonight at Deanery Road in the constituency has been cancelled as a result of Ebanks’ murder, Gordon-Webley told the Observer.

Woodford Park has been a hotbed of political tension since a Toyota Coaster bus transporting JLP supporters to a conference was shot up last month. Four persons were shot and injured.

Gordon-Webley also reported this week that she was shot at when she attempted to tour sections of Fourth Avenue in Vineyard Town.