Myanmar drops hosting Miss Grand International 2024 finals
MANILA, Philippines — The Bangkok-based Miss Grand International pageant system will be searching for another venue for its 2024 competition as Myanmar, which was announced as this year's host at the crowning ceremony last year, will no longer be hosting it due to the current political situation in the country.
"We confirm that Miss Grand International (MGI) 2024 will no longer be held in Myanmar, due to the current situation," Ratchaphol Chantaratim, a representative of the company, told Agence France Presse (AFP).
The replacement venue will be announced soon, according to an official statement issued by the MGI Organization on social media.
Civil unrest resulted after the military seized power and the junta has been accused of mass atrocities. Miss Grand Myanmar 2020 Han Lay did not return to her home nation after the Bangkok pageant as a standing arrest order was issued against her.
In 2020, Myanmar's delegate, Thaw Nandar Aung, publicly criticized the junta and its bloody crackdowns on protests against its coup. The former Psychology student, also known as Han Lay, was refused permission to enter Thailand and spent days stranded at an airport in Bangkok.
She was able to compete in the Miss Grand International 2020 pageant and landed in the Top 20 with the Philippines' Samantha Bernardo, who eventually went on to win as 1st runner-up. Han Lay was, thereafter, granted asylum in Canada.
Last year, Myanmar's delegate to the Miss Grand International competition, Ni Ni Lin Eain, was proclaimed 1st runner-up to eventual winner Luciana Fuster of Peru.
The Miss Grand International 2024 final show is still slated on October 25 but the new venue of the competition will be announced later.
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