With the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) ringing its own bell for its decision to select a record 19 women to contest the September 3 General Election, some critics have charged that the women, particularly the newcomers, are being used as tokens and being placed in seats the party does not expect to win.

But three of the 19 — Tova Hamilton, Natalie Campbell-Rodriques and Rhoda Moy Crawford — in an interview with the Jamaica Observer last week, rejected that notion as they declared that they are valued and respected by the men in the Andrew Holness-led party and are entering representational politics determined to make a difference.

Hamilton, Campbell-Rodriques and Crawford accepted that they are set for tough fights to win their seats, which were all won by the People’s National Party (PNP) when Jamaicans last went to the polls in 2016.

All three are confident that with the work they have done, and the performance of the Holness Administration over the past four and a half years, they will emerge victorious when the votes are counted.

Hamilton will contest Trelawny Northern, Campbell-Rodriques will be trying to take St Catherine North Central from the PNP’s Natalie Neita, while Crawford goes against PNP heavyweight Peter Bunting in Manchester Central.

“There is no seat in Jamaica that cannot be lost. In 2016 the candidate who ran for the Jamaica Labour Party [Kerensia Morrison] lost by 1,300 votes and 900 of that came out of one division, so I am saying to you it [St Catherine North Central] can be won,” declared Campbell-Rodriques, a development specialist who focuses on youth.

“We have less than 30,000 people on the voters’ list and a little less than 15,000 belong to the Bog Walk Division, which is our stronghold, while Angels has 7,500 and Sligoville [the PNP stronghold] has less than 5,000, so it is possible,” added Campbell-Rodriques.

A similarly confident Hamilton will be seeking to topple the PNP’s Victor Wright who won by 449 votes in 2016.

But Hamilton noted that a number of polling divisions (PDs), where the JLP polled more than 1,000 votes in the last general election, have been cut from the constituency.

“We are losing 12 PDs, just over 3,800 voters, so we may have an advantage in one area but we have a disadvantage in another. From the 12 PDs that we are losing in the 2016, election we would have gotten more than 1,110 votes to the PNP’s 720 plus.

“So we are losing some of our strong communities, but the light in that tunnel comes from the enumeration process. We have close to 4,000 new persons since 2016 and these are mainly younger persons who are coming in. It is these young people [who] want the change and are hungry for the change who I will be appealing to,” declared Hamilton, an attorney-at-law who was appointed to the Senate close to the end of the life of the last Parliament.

With Bunting seemingly well set in Manchester Central, having turned back a number of strong contenders over the years, Crawford knows she is in for a fight, but she is undaunted.

“I have not been placed in a constituency that I cannot win. I will be winning, and the reason for that is that I am from the people and they have raised me to be who I am. They see my sincerity and there has been 31 plus years of neglect in the constituency.

“The problems I grew up seeing still exist — lack of water, bad roads, inadequate access to education and training, and such. The people have grown tired of leaders who do not represent them well and who they only see during the election season,” said Crawford, an educator who is now pursuing a PhD in literacy studies.

With solid educational qualifications, all three women underscored that they are entering representational politics with their only aim being to make a difference in the lives of Jamaicans.

“I have lived in four different countries in my 45 years and I have done several things, job wise. But the place I have been happiest is in politics. The work that you can do as a politician is when you actually feel like you can change people’s lives. Going into the Lower House, what it would afford me is an opportunity to effect change through policy as well as the work you do inside the constituency,” said Campbell-Rodriques.

For Hamilton, her decision to enter representational politics is about “servant leadership” which, she argued, explaining that the most effective leaders are servants of their people.

“I am from the constituency of Trelawny Northern and growing up there is not much change that I would have seen in that space. For me, I want to see my home in a more developed, more enriched, and more prosperous kind of setting.

“I want to give them the kind of leadership they deserve, and that is servant leadership,” said Hamilton.

It is a similar story for Crawford, who has lived in Manchester Central for all her life and is disappointed about the lack of development in the area.

The three are adamant that the JLP is the vehicle through which they can achieve the change that they want for the people of their constituencies.

“I think it is a clear choice, especially in modern times. I basically grew up — in my younger years, early adulthood — under a People’s National Party Government and I have seen what that is like, and when you compare it to the times under the Jamaica Labour Party Government, especially now under Andrew Holness, there is no doubt that this is better for the country.

“You feel as though you are being led and, as decisions are made, not just casually or politically, but there is a cerebral process behind it and I am proud to be on the ticket of the JLP,” declared Campbell-Rodriques.

“The Jamaica Labour Party has vision, and I believe that the vision that we have it is easy to buy into it. Successive governments have come and said they would do ‘x’ or ‘y’ and it gets stuck in the pipeline, but we flush the pipeline and we get things done. I think the generation of now likes to get things done now and that is what would attract especially the younger people to the JLP,” chimed Hamilton.

The women bristled at the suggestion that they are being used as tokens by the JLP and declared that they are not entering politics simply to add their beauty to party rallies and meetings.

“If you look at the women who are here, all of us are substantive in our own right, and anyone of us could stand up and be a worthy candidate of any party anywhere across the world, so we are not tokens at all,” declared Campbell-Rodriques.

She was quickly supported by the others, with Crawford adamant that the JLP values its female members for their brains and the work they do.

“When you look at the performance and the work of the present JLP Members of Parliament they are all performers, and I believe the JLP took a good look at all of us before they took that decision to include us on the slate,” said Crawford as Hamilton argued that the party has groomed and continues to groom its women for senior leadership roles.