SONGKHLA — The largest pageant in the south was interrupted on Monday night by an angry contestant who spoke on behalf of the losers and accused the judges of rigging the game.
The southern belle, Ornapan Na Chiang Mai, strode up to the stage at the Miss Samila 2020 pageant after she and four others were eliminated from the contest and demanded answers from the judges’ panel.
“We’ve been on the pageant circuit for a while,” Ornapan said to the judges. “We know when we lose and when we win. We know when we answer well and when we don’t. We know when we don’t deserve to go through to the next round.”
“We can gracefully accept defeat, but tonight there is no justice!” Ornapan said to loud cheers before her mic was cut.
Her plea for justice appeared to work. Organizers eventually agreed to split the 200,000 baht prize 10 ways among the 10 finalists, and did not crown anyone.
During the pageant, five out of 10 finalists were eliminated following the question-and-answer section.
Photos of the judges’ scores – a plain A4 sheet of paper scribbled with numbers – showed that contestants who scored as low as 0 points were allowed to go through, while Ornapan, who got a full score, was taken out.
The question was, “If the world ended and you got to choose who would populate the new planet, who would you choose, and why? Would you be in that group?”
Contestant no.30 got zero points for suggesting that scientists and doctors go.
