The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 2020 General and Regional Elections resumed hearings today. A returning witness during cross-examination revealed new and damning details regarding the bomb threat on March 5, 2020.
Former City Commander Edgar Thomas took the stand again and told the commission that former Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Business Ministry, Karen Vansluytman contacted him on the day of the bomb threat requesting a favour from him.
Thomas testified that the DPS explained to him that a relative of hers had been arrested as a suspect in relation to the bomb threat at the GECOM command center, and as such, requested that he be released on bail.
“I received a call from one Miss Vansluytman… I think she was DPS at the then Ministry of Business and requested bail for her relative who was the suspect in the mischievous phone call, the bomb threat… I told her that there was nothing I could do about it because the matter was being dealt with by Commissioner James,” Thomas said.
During the testimony of several key witnesses during last year’s COI hearings, there was no indication that anyone was arrested or charged with regard to the bomb threat.
It was the then Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers, who testified that no bombs were found in the building after the bomb squad of the force combed through the building. She noted that an organized evacuation protocol was instituted after the threat was made.
Chief of Security of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Ronald Stuart, had also claimed that the bomb threat was a hoax. He noted that the infamous bomb threat was designed to remove party agents from witnessing the tabulation process for Region Four during the 2020 Regional and General Elections.
Then, on December 1 last year, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Eslton Baird testified based on statements taken from investigators on the day of the bomb threat revealed that bomb squad ranks were taken to a room where there was a white styrofoam cup. In the cup was a small recording device. Photographs were reportedly taken of the scene.
