Miss Universe El Salvador has addressed the controversy of mistakenly posting the top five candidates’ art card which includes Philippine bet Michelle Dee during the final competition, admitting that it “was a simple error.”
The host country made the statement on their Instagram account on Thursday, Nov. 23, four days after the coronation night.
“Our mistake! In the rush to get our posts up during Saturday’s live broadcast, we accidentally mixed up the names of two finalists,” they began, not specifying the names of the said candidates.
In case you missed it, many eagle-eyed pageant fans spotted their Instagram post during the final competition on Sunday, Nov. 19 (Philippine time).
After the announcement of the top five candidates, they posted an update on their Instagram page which included Australia, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and the Philippines, contrary to the live announcement which has Thailand’s Anntonia Porsild instead of Dee. The post was immediately taken down.
With this, many pageant fans called out and expressed their dismay to the organization in their rectified post, claiming that they saw the original version of it.
“SHOW THE ORIGINAL POST! It’s impossible it was a mistake, Top 5 results was given to graphic designer prior to top 5 announcement! JUSTICE FOR MMD!” a social media user commented. “We know something is fishy with the Top 5 result. LOL. Let the karma do its thing.”
“WTF????? POST THE UNEDITED VERSION OF THIS PHOTO. THIS IS NOT FAIR TO MS MICHELLE DEE. GIVE WHAT SHE DESERVES. THAILAND WASN’T EVEN THERE AT YOUR FIRST POST. STOP CHEATING WTF,” another one commented.
The organization, for their part, reiterated that it “was a simple error,” noting that they did not have special access to the results prior to its announcement.
“This was a simple error of moving too fast – we heard the same results live at the same time that you all did, no special access over here!” they continued. “We’re sorry to both finalists.”
Many pageant fans expressed their dismay after Dee ended her Miss Universe journey in the top 10, especially noting her remarkable performance from the preliminaries to the finals.
Despite this, she won three special awards including a gold award for the “Voice for Change” category for her autism advocacy, the Spirit of Carnival award, and placing first in the fan vote.
Sheynnis Palacios of Nicaragua emerged as the winner in this year’s competition, marking their country’s first crown in decades. Meanwhile, Porsild and Australia’s Moraya Wilson placed first and second runner-up respectively.
