The decision by former staunch APNU+AFC Member of Parliament, Barbara Pilgrim to switch support to the PPP/C has raised eyebrows and questions about the motivations behind the move.
Pilgrim, from New Amsterdam, had been such a dedicated member of the APNU branch of the coalition that she was the one handpicked by Con-gress Place to replace recalled AFC MP Charrandass Persaud after he voted with the PPP/C and brought down the coalition. Observers note that only a highly trusted member would have been named to replace Persaud given the coalition’s one-seat majority in Parlia-ment.
Pilgrim had also been a vociferous supporter for the swearing in of former President David Granger during the five-month impasse over the 2020 general elections.
In throwing her support behind the PPP/C, Pilgrim has reportedly met with the party’s General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, and has had an increasingly visible presence at the New Amsterdam Freedom House. She has also been seen wearing the ruling party’s shirt in some instances.
Contacted on Tuesday for the reasoning behind her support for the party she asked for time to think about it. On Wednesday she said that she had not received clearance “as yet.”
After coming under fire from her former colleagues – PNC/APNU activists – Pilgrim in a Facebook post in April lashed out at several members of APNU stating, that “many of them who are making all sorts of statements about me do not have even a quarter of my service to the PNC most of which was voluntary.”
She said, that she had “given the best years of my life to that party.”
She noted that during the formation of the Alliance For Change (AFC) by Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan she was invited to become a member of that party but she did not leave “the sinking ship.” However, she added, “I should have left since then” explaining that some persons had convinced her not to.
In January 2019, Pilgrim, a former Mayor of New Amsterdam, was sworn in as a member of the National Assembly after being acknowledged by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) as a replacement for the recalled Persaud.
Speaking with reporters then, the former teacher and cooperatives officer said that she had been a member of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the largest member of APNU since she was 19 years old.
Under the APNU+AFC administration, Pilgrim was Region Six’s community development officer under the Ministry of Local Government.
In June 2020, Pilgrim and just over 100 APNU+AFC supporters took to the streets of New Amsterdam in a march to press Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson Claudette Singh to declare the coalition the winner of the 2020 general and regional elections.
They had gathered in front of GECOM’s office, located in New Amster-dam, after which they marched to the APNU+AFC’s office, located on the Waterside in New Amsterdam, as they shouted “Nandlall say fraud is fraud” and “Only valid votes must count.”
At that time, an agreed national recount had shown that the then-opposition PPP/C had won the March 2 polls.
Speaking to the gathering at the coalition’s office Pilgrim an APNU+AFC candidate then, urged the supporters not to give up and to show that they are in it for the “long haul.”
In her address, she said, that she noticed a lot of discrepancies during the initial counting of the Region Six ballots, which led to her calling for a recount in the region. She said, “We don’t mind if we lose fair but don’t tell me about reasonably credible it has to be credible or not credible.”
Pilgrim had added, “I am going to be one to say when the leader [President David Granger] did agree for the recount I did vex. I was mad. I say, ‘Wah happen with this man? Why he agreeing for recount? We did already got the thing in we hand, why we must take recount? But the recount was a learning lesson.”
Pilgrim also said the coalition could have “do the same thing because all those lists were given to us of people who are dead and people who have gone overseas. We could have done the same thing but we did not do it, we couldn’t, not with David Arthur Granger.”
Furthermore, she had urged her party’s supporters to rally behind Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield, saying that he had already submitted his report and that is the only report they are going to accept.
Lowenfield at that time had supported the APNU+AFC’s claims, although a CARICOM observer team had found that the recount of votes was sufficiently transparent to reflect the will of the Guyanese people and form the basis for the declaration of the results.
“We are not going to give up this easily comrades, so make up your mind that we got a long haul. I want you to stay stiff, stay peaceful and listen to your TVs,” Pilgrim said. “Let’s keep hope alive and lift the hands of David Arthur Granger, let him know that we stand with him 100% and we going down in the trenches with him,” she stressed.
Also in June 2020, Pilgrim was charged with hosting a social event at Princess Elizabeth Road, New Amsterdam, in breach of the then Covid–19 restrictions. Five other APNU members were also charged with breaching the restrictions after being a part of the march.
In 2019, Pilgrim who was then a Member of Parliament wrote to the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) seeking sanctions on Jagdeo, then Leader of the Opposition. According to her letter, while at a meeting held at Babu Jaan, Port Mourant, Jagdeo uttered statements that incited fear, tension, and confusion.
Stabroek News had reported that Jagdeo addressing supporters during the PPP’s 2019 commemoration of the birth anniversary of the party’s founder, Dr, Cheddi Jagan, stated, “Here in Berbice and right across Guyana, when the ministers or (President David) Granger or (Prime Minister Moses) Nagamootoo come here after the 21st of March, you say to them, walk behind them, chase them out.”
He added, “They are going to be illegal. Say to them, ‘You are illegal! Free up the country! You are undemocratic!’, before proceeding to tell supporters that plans are on stream for the same action across the country and the PPP will “get teams of people to picket them everywhere; in their homes, offices, everywhere.”
