Saint Lucia’s Carnival competition rules may soon change, with a tie-breaker set to be added to the National Carnival Queen Pageant after this year’s decision to crown two queens.
Speaking at Monday’s pre-Cabinet press briefing, Minister for Creative Industries and Culture Dr Ernest Hilaire defended the decision, arguing that under the existing rules there was no provision for a tie-breaker, leaving officials with little choice but to declare joint winners.
Hilaire said adding a tie-breaker during the event would have been unfair and might have exposed the Carnival Planning and Management Committee to legal challenges. He believes the right decision was made based on the rules at the time.
Even so, he made one thing clear: “A tie will never happen again. We’re going to redo the rules…”
Hilaire also said it’s time to review the rules and judging criteria for all Carnival competitions, not just the pageant.
He explained that the goal is to improve the quality of the competitions and reduce any possible bias. One idea is to remove the highest and lowest scores from judges in the Soca Monarch and Calypso competitions.
“I’m also going to ask the team to look at the rules across all competitions… just let us refresh; there are new methodologies for judging. There’s so much more we can do.”
The Minister, however, stressed that any changes would not be made unilaterally. He said the process would involve consultations with stakeholders, a review of best practices from the region and internationally, and collective discussions before any new rules are adopted.
A more pressing issue for your government officials is crime it’s negative impact on your tourism-dependent economy. The US embassy just, at long last, issued a travel warning to Americans about violent crime including rape and murder involving foreigners, including while staying at St. Lucia resorts. That would appear to me to be a far more important matter than rules about beauty queens for government officials to tackle, and with a sense of urgency.
@Anonymous – I couldn’t agree more!
@anonymous 1 ..you are spot on with your comment.
In addition if you say anything truthful about what’s happening on island ..some Lucians including my sister gets offended.
This is what they usually say …”things happening everywhere” – that may be true. However for your size 238 square miles much is happening there for sure. Some go as far as making camparion between St. Lucia and the US…..smh.