JUNCTION, St Elizabeth – Police yesterday said a woman was shot in the shoulder and two other people suffered minor injuries as a clash between political party supporters in Junction Square marred Nomination Day activities in South East St Elizabeth.

Norma Powell of Bull Savannah was reportedly at the wheel of her silver Mitsubishi motor car in a line of traffic at about 11:00 am shortly after the nomination of the ruling People’s National Party’s (PNP) candidate for South East St Elizabeth, Norman Horne, at the nearby BB Coke High School, when she was shot.

Powell was said to be in stable condition in hospital up until late yesterday. Her car – with a small hole in the back windscreen and evidence of missile-impact in the front windscreen – was impounded by the police for forensic investigation.

At round about the same time that Powell was shot, PNP supporters on their way through the square from the Nomination Centre and Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters massing to march to the centre were caught in a fracas as lunatic elements in their midst threw bottles and stones.

Two people – whose names were not confirmed by the police up to late yesterday – suffered injuries in the missile throwing. One man was reportedly hit in the forehead by a bottle while a woman was cut on the finger and knee by broken glass.

Police later confirmed that shots were fired in the air by oficers on the scene, who, with the help of a small party of soldiers, quickly brought the situation under control.

The incident did not delay the nomination of the JLP’s Franklyn Witter, Conrad Powell of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and an Independent, Sharon Witter – a farmer from Bull Savannah. The four are contesting a seat being vacated by Len Blake of the PNP who was controversially dropped from the list of candidates by the ruling party’s hierarchy to be replaced by Horne. SE St Elizabeth was the only constituency in the parish to see nominations by anyone outside of the two major parties.

Elsewhere in St Elizabeth, reports say nomination went smoothly with few incidents and no violence. “Otherwise it was good … nowhere else showed up,” said police chief in St Elizabeth, Supt Howard Francis.

In South West St Elizabeth, Senator Christopher Tufton (JLP) and Rev Stanley Redwood (PNP) were nominated. The seat is being vacated by Minister of Information and the PNP’s General Secretary Donald Buchanan who is retiring from representational politics.

In North West St Elizabeth, JC Hutchinson the only JLP member from St Elizabeth in the last Parliament and Ann Marie Warburton from the PNP were nominated.

And in North East St Elizabeth, Senator Kern Spencer (PNP) and teacher Corris Samuels (JLP) were nominated. Spencer and Samuels are contending to replace Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke who is representing the PNP in Central Westmoreland.

In Junction, Horne, walking hand in hand with his wife Denise and accompanied by his father Donald, brother Manley, sister Ann and senior constituency workers, entered the Nomination Centre at 10:42 am, 42 minutes later than scheduled.