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Date Posted: 13:48:14 10/18/06 Wed
Ugly side to pageant
Rolle reportedly fired from post after contract breach
By JASMIN BONIMY, Guardian Staff Reporter
jasmin@nasguard.com
Miss Bahamas Universe organiser, Gaynell Rolle, was fired from her position as National Director of the Intercontinental Beauty Pageant after breaching a contract, organisers have revealed.
Ms Rolle was stripped of her position last Friday, just three days before the pageant took place. Miss Intercontinental, which was filmed in New Providence over the past two weeks, was the first major international pageant hosted in The Bahamas.
At a press conference held yesterday, management of the World Beauty Organisation (WBO), the group that produces Miss Intercontinental, admitted that the pageant had faced some "challenges," but declined to go into detail.
Said Detlef Tursies, Managing Director of the WBO, "We have a new National Director. This is right. We had some challenges with Ms Rolle. That is correct. If you do an international pageant there is the responsibility of so many delegates from all over the world. When it is a pageant that is watched by the world, then if you see that something is not according to the contract then we have to change something."
The Guardian attempted to reach Ms Rolle for comment on the matter but she was unavailable up to press time last night.
According to Mr Tursies, Ms Rolle was awarded the director's position after she proposed the pageant be held in The Bahamas.
"I know [Ms Rolle] personally since Miss Universe and she always was interested in getting directorship for The Bahamas but we were engaged already with Michelle Malcolm," he said. "I think it was a lucky thing for her this year because when China cancelled we were in search for a host country and she came up with the idea to bring the pageant to The Bahamas. She directly contacted the WBO and then they had made her the new National Director. So I think it was mainly because she was the one to bring the pageant here."
Immediately after she was relieved of her duties, Ms Rolle was replaced by tourism official and veteran broadcaster Michelle Malcolm, chairperson of the Miss Bahamas Organisation. According to Mr Tursies, Ms Malcolm's relationship with the international organisation resulted in her being named the next National Director.
"She was our contact all the time," he said. "We knew her because she was one of our judges in the 2004 Miss Intercontinental pageant.
The WBO official added that the Ministry of Tourism also played an integral role in getting the pageant off the ground.
"Thanks to the Ministry of Tourism, who then stepped into it and supported us so we could finish the pageant here," said Mr Tursies. "I think it was a big success because when you imagine within three days we were able to reach the finals."
"We wish of course we could have had another week here not only because of the weather but maybe for bigger choreography or doing much more," he said. "But in the end I am pleased with results. So it was really an amazing co-operation with all these people working together because we wanted to do it here."
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