21 April 2021 07:00 pm
The organizers of the Mrs. Sri Lanka pageant broke the trust of contestants, fellow participants of the pageant said.
They expressed these views while addressing a media briefing recently.
“We were told by the organizers that there should be an active marriage in order to participate in the competition. Accordingly, they asked us to submit the marriage certificate and to bring along the husband to prove a marriage. It should also be noted that they gave a period of ten minutes to raise objections and to withdraw from the competition if any competitor had not fulfilled the relevant requisites," they said.
"However, when the agreement was signed, the organizers showed no interest or consideration of the requisites that they proposed earlier," one contestant said.
"Majority of contestants raised concerns over the double standard of the organizing board. The organizers did not adhere to the criteria that they came out with at the beginning till the end of the competition, the contestants alleged,
"The participants stressed that they had no personal agenda or intention to prove anybody’s divorce but had their faith in the organizers,"
Moreover, the participants said they also had concerns with regard to the transparency of the judges board at the top six round.
“We were supposed to answer several questions asked by the judges. However, those questions were asked by the comperes. When the questions were directed to the contestants, two contestants answered in Sinhala before several foreign judges. What bothers us is that there were no translators,” the participants said.
“According to tradition, there should be an auditor when collecting points alongside the judges. However, we did not notice such an individual, which further raises concerns for us."
Meanwhile, they pointed out that the mini title called “The Best Supportive Husband” was not given away at this pageant.
They are of the doubt that the mini title was removed considering a single contestant.
They requested the organizers of the Mrs. Sri Lanka pageant to be more cautious hereafter in order to make sure these kinds of hiccups would not happen in future. (Sheain Fernandopulle)