People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding warned his supporters on Monday against complacency amid confidence among Comrades over the party’s chances in the September 3 general election.

“Let us not assume we have won already, we don’t win yet. We will not win until every ballot is counted. Every vote has to count. And I am asking each of you to make sure on election day you come out and put your X squarely beside the head so that Mark Jefferson Golding can go back to Gordon House as your representative and as prime minister of Jamaica to take Jamaica forward and build a better life,” Golding said after he was nominated as PNP candidate for St Andrew South at the St Luke’s Church on Slipe Road.

Golding was officially nominated minutes after 10:00am.

He had embarked on a lengthy march to the nomination centre, flanked by scores of party supporters, arriving 30 minutes before the scheduled 10:00am opening time.

“I did a 9 O’clock walk from Spanish Town Road up to Slipe Road in the hot sun. I am feeling good man. Our people are here with us so we feel great. I guess we walked a bit more briskly than we had calculated so we got here a little earlier than we had anticipated but I am accustomed to that,” Golding told the Jamaica Observer shortly before entering the nomination centre.

He said that he did not see it as a formality for the PNP to automatically conquer the St Andrew South seat by virtue of the constituency being a PNP stronghold.

People’s National Party President Mark Golding gestures after paying his nomination fee to become the party’s candidate for St Andrew South on Monday, August 18, 2025. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

“I certainly do not look at it like a formality. I respect the rights of the voters to make their choice. This is a democracy. Obviously I am confident and hopeful because I have an excellent team that helps me. Even though I have a lot of national duties, we try to keep the constituency organisation very strong. We take nothing for granted,” Golding said.

“We have been doing the work. I have had some opportunity to do some walking in the constituency, not as much as I would normally like, But I have been present as we could be and will get a good result. The burden this time is different because I have to try my best to deliver a national victory and not just a constituency victory,” Golding said.

The JLP’s Carlton Allen was scheduled to be nominated at 12:00PM at St Luke’s Church.