Miss World NZ online voting issues questioned by fans

Accusations of a biased voting system on the Miss World New Zealand Facebook page have been rejected outright from the organisation.

Last week saw a heated exchange of words take place on the competition’s social media page after an online segment of the competition saw one candidate receive a large number of votes, deemed to be from false names.

The issue of the false votes was quickly resolved, according to Desmond Foulger, the communications coordinator for the Asia Pacific Trust, which runs the competition.

Mr Foulger said he believed the false votes were the action of a misguided friend of the candidate or another person with ill intent.

However, the incident sparked a flurry of comments from followers of the page.

Despite Mr Foulger’s statement that the false votes were no longer a concern, certain members of the page began to make claims about the validity of the competition’s outcome.

“The other contestants should prepare themselves now because the best any of them can hope for is second place, as first has already been allocated,” said Cara Clarke in a Facebook comment.

“This is fishy,” said Barb MacDonald, in another.

Mr Foulger, in an attempt to come to the defence of the competition, used the official Facebook page to specifically address the accusers by name.

He said his comments were intended as fair and honest warning, meant to put an end to the accusations. He said on Facebook that these people “are communicating through an orifice not usually reserved for voice communication”.

Mr Foulger posted numerous comments on the page in response to people’s accusations, including, “Put your money where your mouth is and come and see just how unfair our pageant is,” and “You had just perhaps step back before you find out how much and how hard I can bite.”

He also posted a comment which read, “If you spent as much time putting your own communal affairs in order as you do poking a stick in our hornets’ nest, you would be much better people”.

The posts have since been deleted.

Mr Foulger said things like this have occurred before. “In the past, such attacks have come from competitors, but this latest set of attacks have a motive which is not immediately clear.”

“I feel extremely frustrated that these matters have been dragged into the public arena but philosophically such people do seem to raise their heads from time to time, and wherever possible I will ignore them with the contempt they so richly deserve.”

Two Miss World NZ finalists not related to the original issue, who did not wish to be named, stated they have never felt any inequality of treatment, and have enjoyed all aspects of the competition.

Dianne Foley, founder of Pageants of New Zealand, who organise the Miss Teen New Zealand and Face of Beauty pageants, said incidents involving accusations are a rare occurrence. “I’ve been in the business for 34 years and we don’t have any,” she said.

When asked how she would have responded to any accusatory remarks, were they ever to come her way, she stated she wouldn’t know.

The winner of Miss World NZ will be decided on Saturday, June 4, and will go on to promote events and campaigns of various charities such as the Ronald McDonald house.