In an editorial titled ‘Will Jamaica’s vaunted electoral system hold?’ only a week ago, last Thursday, this newspaper urged the powers that be to move to nip reported skirmishes between the two major political parties in the bud.

We pointed out that: “The current, though as yet undeclared electoral campaign, has been slowly heating up, with increasing press reports of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) trading accusations of political sabotage, violence, and destruction of campaign paraphernalia.”

And we reminded those who might not have been old enough to know that: “Electoral fraud was a constant feature of [past] elections through actions such as bogus voting — ballot stealing and stuffing of boxes; multiple marking of ballots by the same individual, often defying the use of the iconic purple voting ink; mass intimidation of voters using violence; vote-buying and the like.

“While it is not yet anywhere close to the bloodletting of past elections, such as the 1980 campaign when a reported 800 people, probably higher, were killed in the name of party politics, these [present] skirmishes must be nipped in the bud.”

We have no doubt that there are those with perverted minds among us who miss the days of mayhem and bloodshed in political violence pitting the now ruling JLP and the Opposition PNP against each other.

We return to this subject today following the claims by JLP Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston Central Mr Donovan Williams that gunmen opened fire Tuesday “in the direction of MP Williams and a group of Jamaica Labour Party supporters, including members of Williams’ campaign team”.

According to the MP, the incident occurred at the intersection of Tower Street and South Camp Road in downtown Kingston and his “team and party supporters took evasive action when the attack took place. The gunmen fled the scene after opening fire.

“The police are investigating the attack”.

To his credit, Mr Williams said he urged his supporters to be calm and show restraint. This is what all MPs and party leadership must do to ensure that things do not get out of hand. We have been down that road before and must never walk that way again.

Besides urging restraint, the political stakeholders need to rein in the political thugs and report any instigators of violence to the police. Given the sensitivity of the situation, one cannot blame people who refuse to take a politician’s report as gospel.

Nothing in Mr Williams’ report, besides circumstantial evidence, can lead one to conclude that the alleged incident was political violence. Neither did he claim such. How often have we seen where gang warfare or domestic incidents are misconstrued as political violence.

However, from social media comments on the JLP press release, there are already people who have made that conclusion and some seem ready to strike out at the perceived attackers. Until the police confirm any claim the media must be careful not to fall into any politician’s trap in the way such matters are reported.

Hopefully, there is no need to remind anyone that the spectacular fall in crime, notably murders, is not yet a sign that the nation has won the war against the gunmen. Neither can we relax in the view that our electoral system will always hold.