Pacific Pageant Vote Rigging Controversy Sparks Investigation
If you're on social media, one Pacific story has been dominating news feeds over the past week: the controversy surrounding the Miss Pacific Pageant.
The controversy involves accusations of vote rigging at the crowning event, leading to a stop order that prevented the pageant judges from departing the Solomon Islands.
The Solomon Islands government has stated that it is taking these allegations seriously, and a police investigation is now underway. However, the order preventing the judges from leaving the country has since been lifted.
"I wasn't allowed to leave," said one of the judges, Jane Kanas from Vanuatu. "All the judges were on that list (stop order), and I happened to be the first judge named on that list," she added.
Kanas emphasised, "There was no rigging whatsoever... the judging procedure was very transparent all the way up to the collection of our score sheets to the scrutineers."
