MALVERN, St Elizabeth — Member of Parliament for Manchester Central Rhoda Moy Crawford says she is confident she will retain her seat over the Opposition People’s National Party’s (PNP) representative, mayor of Mandeville Donovan Mitchell, whenever the next parliamentary election is held.

“He has announced that he is running against me and he says he is going to beat me, but is one thing I have to tell Councillor Donovan Mitchell, is that come whenever the elections are called, if it call before the local, if it call after the local, if it is called together with the local, I am going to deliver to him the biggest political backsiding…” she said while addressing the Jamaica Labour Party’s Malvern divisional conference on Sunday in St Elizabeth.

Mitchell last month was ratified as the PNP’s representative in Manchester Central replacing Senator Peter Bunting.

Bunting lost to Crawford in the September 3, 2020 General Election. Crawford polled 8,139 votes over Bunting’s 6,989 votes.

Mitchell, who is also councillor for the Royal Flat Division in Manchester Central, had expressed confidence that the PNP will regain divisions and constituencies in Manchester at a recent PNP constituency conference.

“Comrades, I tell you time come, because if they think they will get away with some of the things they are going on with, I know we are just waiting, if they want to call the general election, fine with me, if they want to call the local election, fine with me,” Mitchell had said.

Bunting, Opposition spokesperson on national security, and former minister of national security on Sunday at a political meeting, said the Government is bankrupt of ideas to address crime and accused the Administration of not taking responsibility to control it.

However, Crawford insists that the Government has made strides in tackling crime.

“Don’t make anybody fool you, crime is on the decrease. Look at the numbers. Never before in the history of Jamaica have we seen so many police stations being renovated and being built. We are spending billions to invest in security systems. We are purchasing new police vehicles and again, we have given the police officers the biggest increase in the history of Jamaica,” she said.

She boasted about investments made in road infrastructure and housing development.

“Never before have we seen road after road being constructed — highways, main roads, community roads, farm roads, parish council roads. Every road is being fixed…A record number of houses are being built through the NHT,” she said, “… the prime minister’s special HOPE housing programme, the indigent housing programme through the Ministry of Local Government.

“We are busy renovating, building and expanding hospitals and health centres right across Jamaica. We are not stopping there. We are spending billions to put in place new state-of-the-art equipment, and we have paid the doctors and nurses the biggest compensation package in the history of Jamaica,” added Crawford.