THE ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday made a joint call for an immediate end to all acts of political violence, as the nation prepares to vote in parliamentary elections on Monday.

The call came after four persons, said to be aligned to the JLP, were gunned down and a tour headed by the party’s candidate for Eastern St Andrew, Dr St Aubyn Bartlett, came under fire in Tavern on Wednesday night, injuring three JLP workers.

The incidents fuelled a recommendation from the Election Centre on Thursday that the police ban all public political activities in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine, including final rallies that were planned for Cross Roads by the PNP and downtown Kingston by the JLP.

Yesterday, Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas said he had accepted the recommendation of the political ombudsman, Bishop Herro Blair, and other members of the Election Centre to, with immediate effect, institute a ban on all rallies, marches, motorcades and mass meetings in the parishes of Kingston, St Andrew, and St Catherine.

In the meantime, general secretaries of the two major parties – Karl Samuda (JLP) and Donald Buchanan (PNP) – yesterday extended sympathy to the families of the persons who were killed on Wednesday, and those injured, in what were said to be clear cases of political violence.

“We abhor this kind of violent action. We also express shock and dismay at last evening’s shooting up of the vehicle in which the Jamaica Labour Party’s candidate was travelling,” according to a joint statement from the two parties yesterday.

The general secretaries said they were in support of the efforts of the security forces and encouraged them to thoroughly investigate the incidents. In the meantime, they said the “troubled belt bordering East, East Rural and South East St Andrew be afforded special attention under the watchful eyes of the security forces, at least, over the next five days”.

Meantime, Bishop Blair told the Observer that the recommendation by the Electoral Centre for the police to place a ban on all rallies, motorcades and public gatherings for the Corporate Area and St Catherine this weekend was a pre-emptive one.

“We put everything together in the mix and felt that based on the mitigating circumstances we should recommend what was accepted.

“We are trying to be proactive. The tensions in the area had not weighed heavily on the decision but we felt that at this time the best way to approach Monday (election day) is through this medium,” Blair said.

However, the police could not say yesterday if Wednesday night’s killings and shooting injuries were directly linked to politics.

The constabulary’s director of communications, Karl Angell, told the Observer that political motives had not been ascribed to all reported killings during the campaigning period, but said “investigations are continuing”.

Said Angell: “It’s a little bit too early in some of the instances to make a definitive statement.” He said, however, that a list was being compiled by the deputy commissioner in charge of crime, Mark Shields.

Angell said that in addition to the ban on political activities in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine, restrictions on similar activities in the constituencies of Central Manchester, South East St Elizabeth and Western St Thomas also remained in effect due to flare-ups in those areas.

“Permission will not be granted for any motorcades, rallies or gatherings. The normal process is for them to apply to the superintendent in charge of that division for permission and in those areas permission will not be granted,” Angell said.