MANCHESTER, Jamaica – The Jamaica Labour Party’s Rhoda Moy Crawford, incumbent Member of Parliament for Manchester Central, is predicting a bigger margin of victory at the September 3 polls in comparison to her political upset over the People’s National Party in the 2020 General Election.

“What I am feeling and seeing on the ground, my support now is even stronger than it was in 2020. I am very confident of victory. We are looking for a 2,000 margin,” she said shortly after being nominated on Monday afternoon at Mandeville Family Court.

“Remember in 2020 they said I couldn’t win and here I am standing today. Check me again on the night of September 3, 2025 and you will see that the people of Manchester Central have successfully returned me as their Member of Parliament,” she declared.

The first-time MP is being challenged by the PNP’s Donovan Mitchell, the mayor of Mandeville.

Mitchell replaced Senator Peter Bunting, who, after losing to Crawford in the September 3, 2020 General Election, is now contesting the Manchester Southern seat.

Crawford, who was scheduled to be nominated at a later time on Monday than Mitchell, had polled 8,139 votes to Bunting’s 6,989.

When asked by the media about her chances of retaining the seat given the PNP’s talks of unity among its members, Crawford said she has grown her base in the constituency.

“This campaign is even much better, because now the people saw what I promised, and delivered on those promises. They delivered even more, so now we have an even larger support base,” she said.

She listed road works and expenditure on education among her achievements.

“The road infrastructure has seen significant improvement. Never before has any Member of Parliament been able to repair more than 40 roads in one single term…Manchester Central has never had a more hardworking [MP] than Rhoda Moy Crawford. My people know that they can depend on me and when they re-elect me on September 3rd, it will be a continuation of the excellent work that I have started,” she claimed.

She also believes she’s done enough work in the traditional PNP stronghold division of Bellefield to shore up support there.

“Like in 2020 when the boxes were being counted and they were saying, ‘Don’t worry, the Bellefield boxes have not yet come,’ and they were so disappointed; in the last election I was able to significantly close the gap from 800 plus to 300,” she said.

Bellefield is one of the divisions in Manchester Central, the others being Mandeville, Royal Flat, and Knockpatrick.

– Kasey Williams