MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Chief of police in Manchester, Superintendent Martin Baylis, has confirmed that the Manchester police are investigating reports of attacks on ruling People’s National Party (PNP) supporters in North East Manchester which left one man hospitalised yesterday.

Paul Lyn, the PNP candidate for North East Manchester, told a party mass rally – which was addressed by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in Christiana late Wednesday night – that the PNP supporter was injured when a small PNP motorcade was attacked in Malton, about five miles west of Christiana at about 4:00 pm.

In follow-up interviews with journalists, Lyn identified the injured PNP supporter as Roger Powell of Christiana.

According to Lyn, Powell received stab wounds to the “lower extremities”, knife lacerations to the hands and head injuries after being hit with a stone. He said another man received “bruises” during the attack.

Lyn will be up against Audley Shaw of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in Monday’s parliamentary election. Efforts to reach Shaw by telephone yesterday afternoon failed. Shaw has held the seat for the JLP since 1993.

Lyn said the motorcade of about 11 cars accompanied by motorcyclists were announcing news of the prime minister’s presence at the Christiana rally when they found the road blocked. On his advice, they attempted to turn around but also found they were blocked at the rear.

In addition to the injured persons, Lyn said two cars were damaged and a motor cycle taken away from its rider at Malton. Lyn charged that another of his supporters was also robbed of his motorcycle in Cross Roads, Christiana even as the mass meeting was taking place about 150 metres away at Sinclair’s Car Park on Main Street.

Yesterday, Baylis told the Observer that an investigation had been ordered and he would provide a “further update” today.

During her speech to the thousands of supporters at the rally, Simpson Miller referred to the incident in Malton as well as to other alleged attacks and acts of intimidation against PNP supporters in Clarendon on Wednesday.

The prime minister urged the leadership of the JLP, including Opposition Leader Bruce Golding, to “condemn attacks by JLP supporters” on PNP followers.

At the same time, she urged PNP faithful to refrain from retaliation and to avoid being drawn “into any confrontation” with labourites. The “attacks”, she said, indicated the “desperation” of the opposition ahead of Monday’s poll.