PHOTO BY NOEL THOMPSON, A Jamaica Labour Party supporter shows an effigy of People’s National Party candidate for South East St. Elizabeth, Senator Norman Horne, in Junction Square, on nomination day, yesterday.
Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Wednesday | August 8, 2007
ST. ELIZABETH: Analee Bernard, Gleaner Writer
Violence threatened a peaceful day in St. Elizabeth yesterday after People's National Party (PNP) candidate Norman Horne was nominated. At 10:42 in the morning Mr. Horne entered the nomination centre at the B.B. Coke High School in Junction, St. Elizabeth, along with former Member of Parliament Derrick Rochester and other family members, including his father, Donald Horne, who is a former councillor for the Junction division.
He presented three $1,000 bills as his nomination fee to returning officer Basil Bennett.
Instead of turning left to Bull Savannah, as was the norm for the PNP, Mr. Horne and his party turned west into the Junction square where there was a confrontation with Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters.
Cops fire shots
The Junction police were forced to fire shots to keep the crowd at bay.
The police also received reports that while the PNP supporters were on their way to the nomination centre, missiles were thrown into a crowd, injuring several JLP supporters.
Mr. Bennett said his team met with both parties up to last Friday and discussed the route they should take, so he was surprised there was a confrontation.
At 11:30 a.m. the JLP's Franklyn Witter entered the nomination centre with approximately 3,500 supporters marching from the town centre.
Meanwhile, police later confirmed that a man said to be a supporter of Mr. Horne was held with a 9mm firearm and arrested.
