by Georgina Maka’a

Miss Pacific Islands Pageants’ head judge Jerry Brunt has hit out at those accusing him of tampering with the results of last Saturday’s crowning night that saw Miss Samoa’s Litara Ieremia-Allan claiming the crown.

Brunt, a Samoan lawyer and hotelier who was involved in the pageant event for years, has been widely accused by social media users of tearing up the piece of paper the final results were written on, then walked up to the two MCs and handed them a different paper.

The basis of this allegation, which In-depth Solomons was unable to cite or establish, led to widespread online bullying and accusations of Brunt.

But speaking exclusively to In-depth Solomons before flying out with other delegates today, Brunt said:

“I can honestly tell you that I don’t even know where that allegation came from.”

He explained that all the scoresheets were collected and handed to the lead scrutineer, Pamela Naesol, who with her assistant tallied the scores from the judges and retained those scoresheets.

“I hold the integrity of the entire Pacific Islands pageant show in high regard, and I feel saddened by these false accusations,” Brunt said.

(PC: Facebook) Head Judge of the Miss Pacific Islands 2025, Jerry Brunt

“In fact, I don’t know where these accusations that I rigged or tampered with the results, came from.

“It’s impossible for me to rig any scoresheets in front of thousands of eyes. 

“Again, I really don’t know where the conspiracy and allegations are coming from.

“God is my witness.” 

Naesol, an auditor by profession who is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Solomon Islands Accountant (ISIA), who was one of the Miss Pacific Pageant 2025 Crowning night Scrutineers, told In-depth Solomons there was no rigging or tampering of last Saturday’s results.

“And I don’t know where all these accusations leveled against Jerry came from because last Saturday’s results followed established Pageant processes,” Naesol said.

“I am 100 percent confident that the process that led to the choosing of the winner of the 2025 Miss Pacific Islands was followed throughout the event.

“There were misleading speculations that we wrote the scores on paper. 

“That is not true; we used a spreadsheet that automatically calculates and tallies the scores when we enter them.”.

Naesol added that the spreadsheet was designed to rank the scores automatically, allowing them to see who was leading.

“The scoring process on crowning night followed this procedure: judges submit their scores, a runner collects the papers from the judges, and hands them over to us,” she explained.

Naesol noted that everything went smoothly until the last category, which was the onstage interview.

Pamela Naesol one of the scrutineers of the crowning night of the Miss Pacific 2025

“After the onstage interview results were given to us, we entered them into the spreadsheet to calculate the final scores of the total results for each contestant to determine the new Miss Pacific Islands. That is when we saw a tie between Miss Tonga and Miss Samoa, with each candidate receiving two votes.”

“The rules of the pageant state that in the event of a tie, I must inform the head judge, who is Jerry Brunt. 

“Because Tonga and Samoa each had two votes, Jerry was the only one who could cast the final vote to determine the winner. 

“He voted for Samoa, giving them three votes to Tonga’s two and ultimately the crown to Samoa.”

Naesol also confirmed that she was the one who handed over the results to the MCs, not Brunt, as was widely speculated online.

“After Jerry’s vote, we compiled the results into two different envelopes according to the categories. 

“One set of envelopes contained the special categories, while the other contained the results of the main award. I was the one who handed over the results to the MCs.”

Naesol said after the crowning, she was approached by a female Tongan judge who questioned why Samoa won instead of Tonga.

“I told her that the papers we received indicated two points each for Samoa and Tonga, but she claimed that three judges voted for Tonga. I advised her to discuss the matter with the MPIP.”

Naesol said she noted that during discussions about the votes, someone recorded a video and posted it on Facebook.

That video recording was misinterpreted by many on Facebook, and used as a ground to accuse Brunt over the results.

“I do not know where the story about Jerry ripping off the original scoresheet came from, as the results were only accessible to me and my colleague.”

Naesol further explained that they were informed during a briefing that in the event of a tie, the head judge is the only one who can determine the winner through his or her final vote, according to the rules and regulations of the pageant.

“I want to clarify that if the results were to be rigged, we would be the ones rigging the scores because no one has access to the results apart from me and my colleague.”

Meanwhile, Naesol said the Best Float Award was awarded to Miss Solomon Islands Elsie Polosovai last Friday straight after the float parade in Honiara.

The winner of this award was supposed to be officially read out along with other awards on crowning night. But this was not done, raising more questions and curiosity about the results.

Miss Solomon Islands Elsie Polosovai was officially given her award the next day at the Honiara Hotel where they were staying.

Naesol said as far as she was concerned, the winner of the Best Float Award was included in the results that were handed to the MCs on Saturday night to be officially announced. 

She said she didn’t know why that particular award was not announced that night.

However, the two MCs Lisa Osifelo and Collin Leafasia, told In-depth Solomons the Best Float Award was not included in the script handed to them that night.

Solomon Hosts, which organized the 2025 Miss Pacific Islands Pageant, has not responded to requests by in-depth Solomons for an interview.