An international row has been created after Miss Pacific Islands 2025 head judge and lawyer, Leiataualesa Jerry Brunt was issued a stop order preventing him from returning to Samoa from the Solomon Islands on Monday.

Authorities in the Solomon Islands have failed to explain why such an action was taken to stop Leiataualesa and a Vanuatu pageant judge. It is still unclear if the Solomon Islands authorities will apologise for their actions.

This prompted the Office of the Prime Minister to officially write to the Solomon Islands Attorney General seeking an explanation as to why Leiataualesa was stopped.

An email was also sent to the Solomon Islands Attorney General, John Junior Muria by the Samoa Observer querying the stop order but there was no response by press time.

Immigration Director of Solomons, Christopher Akosawa was also asked for a comment via email, but he did not reply either.

Solomon Islands Police had referred queries from the Samoa Observer to the Immigration Office.

Leiataualesa told the media that he had been treated like a criminal when he had not broken any laws.

He said stop orders or notices are for people who break the law and he had done nothing as such while in the Solomon Islands.

The controversy that followed the pageant has overshadowed the pageant itself.

Leiataualesa’s wife Fiaailetoa Charlotte Chan Mow-Brunt said he would return to Samoa by Wednesday morning.

“He’s not detained, he just had a stop notice but not locked up or anything,” said Fiaailetoa in an interview with the Samoa Observer.

She added her husband is staying at an Air BnB in the Solomon Islands waiting to return home through Nadi, Fiji. Leiataualesa was due to return to Samoa on Monday with other Samoan delegations.

Asked if she was aware of the reason behind the stop notice she replied no, suggesting that this could be better explained by Leiataualesa when he returns.

An email was sent to Leiataualesa for comments this morning but there was no response.

In-depth Solomons reported Leiataualesa denied the allegations being circulated online.

He told the media outlet 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,” Leiataualesa said.

“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 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.

 “I am 100 per cent confident that the process that led to the choosing of the winner of the 2025 Miss Pacific Islands was followed throughout the event,” she assured.

“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 the 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, the onstage interview.

“After the results of the onstage interview were handed to us and entered into the spreadsheet to determine the new Miss Pacific Islands, we saw a tie between Miss Tonga and Miss Samoa, with two votes each.

“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 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 (organisers).”

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 ground to accuse Brunt of 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.”

Furthermore, she said 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.”