Newly crowned Miss Amerindian Heritage queen dethroned

The newly crowned Miss Amerindian Heritage queen has been dethroned after it was found that the person adding up the scores in last Saturday’s pageant did so incorrectly.

Region Five’s Amber Andrews from Moraikobai village was crowned queen but 24 hours later, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, which organises the pageant, announced that the queen is really Kristie Emma Rambharat from Region Seven. There was no apology for Ms Andrews over the controversy.

The Ministry, in its statement, did not say if another crowning ceremony would be held for the queen but said there will be a prize giving ceremony on Monday.

In her own statement, released on Facebook, Ms Andrews said she was as shocked as everyone else and spoke of the “emotional damage” she suffered after she was crowned. She said what happened was no fault of hers.

“It is an embarrassment. I was publicly humiliated. NO ONE deserves this,” Ms Andrews stated.

So what went wrong?

The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs stated that the judges’ score sheets “were tabulated incorrectly by the Tally Clerk which resulted in erroneous figures.”

The Ministry said that the final scores were tabulated based on a compound scoring system. This included tabulating the total scores for the six (6) segments plus the final question.

After a “thorough and accurate investigation” and an auditing of the judges’ score sheets was conducted, the Ministry said Ms Rambharat was found to have scored 768 points and thus is the new queen. As per the audit, the scores released by the Ministry puts Ms Andrews as tying for fourth position with the delegate from Region Six.

The Ministry said the pageant continues to serve as a platform for empowerment of young Amerindian women across the length and breadth of Guyana.