Stann Creek Committee Says Pageant was Unfairly Re-Judged

On Saturday afternoon, the Stann Creek District Queen of the Bay Committee held a press conference in Belize City at the Biltmore Plaza. The Committee felt, at least at that time, hard done by with the handling of the apparent change in results against their candidate. District Coordinator Sherima Usher-Guity, herself a former Queen of the Bay, noted that a miscalculation of scores as it is being alleged is acceptable, though a tough pill to swallow.  But she alleges that what happened instead was nothing less than a re-judging of the original pageant.

Sherima Usher-Guity

Sherima Usher-Guity, Stann Creek District Coordinator

“If it was a miscalculation now, that Miss Aaliyah Ysaguirre did not win the pageant based on the points, then I would stand back and respect the decision [inaudible] on September second, 2017 at Birds’ Isle and they clearly stated that Aaliyah Ysaguirre was the winner, five judges signed off on it. Today, our past queens and so forth got in contact with me and they told me they spoke with four of the seven judges and [inaudible] judges told us that they are in agreement that Miss Aaliyah Ysaguirre is the winner and they informed Miss Moya that they will not change their scores in any way, shape or form. I was informed also that the national tabulator counted the scores over and still found out that Aaliyah Ysaguirre should be the winner. Now what happened between the judges when they called the judges in – the amount of the judges that came in to meet with Miss Moya and her team – is that they asked them to watch a video, this is what I was told, watch a video of the pageant and read them different rules and regulations and said you needed to deduct points for this and that. So you cannot re-judge the pageant – the judges made their decision on pageant night. Now to look at this video and say Stann Creek is not supposed to win because of this and re-score a delegate? Now, this is outright – I’m not sure what word I should use here. In the past seventy-two years, this was before I was born, no controversy like this has arisen through Queen of the Bay; for the past seventeen years I have been working with Miss Emma Boiton, with Queen of the Bay and no problem like this have ever came up, and I hope that we can come up with a solution to this issue as soon as possible.”