Miss Universe judge quits days before event, claims finalists were preselected

Vivian Kwarm, New York Daily News on Nov 18, 2025

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Just three days before the annual Miss Universe pageant is set to take place, one of the judges has abruptly stepped down.

On Tuesday, Lebanese-French musician Omar Harfouch posted on his Instagram Story explaining why he suddenly pulled out, saying he felt “deep confusion and concern” after finding out that an “impromptu jury” had allegedly been created to select the top 30 finalists in advance, without the presence of any of the real jury members.

“The results of this selection are currently being kept secret” from the actual judges, he claimed.

Harfouch also alleged in a second post that the secret selection committee consists of people with personal ties to certain Miss Universe contestants, “including the person responsible for counting the votes and managing the results, which constitutes a further conflict of interest.”

In a final post, Harfouch announced his decision to not participate in the upcoming Miss Universe competition.

“After having a disrespectful conversation with (Miss Universe CEO) Raul Rocha about the lack of transparency in the Miss Universe voting process, l decided to resign from the jury and refuse to be part of this charade,” Harfouch wrote. “I will also not be playing the music I composed for the event.”

In response to Harfouch’s claims, the Miss Universe Organization released a statement to “clarify certain inaccuracies regarding the Beyond the Crown Program and the official judging processes of the 74th Miss Universe competition.”

“The Miss Universe Organization firmly clarifies that no impromptu jury has been created, that no external group has been authorized to evaluate delegates or select finalists, and that all competition evaluations continue to follow the established, transparent, and supervised MUO protocols,” the statement read.

The organization said that given Harfouch’s “mischaracterization of the program and his stated desire not to participate,” it had accepted his resignation while also prohibiting him from using or associating himself with anything involving Miss Universe, including their trademarks, logos, titles or any of its official materials.

One contestant, who preferred to stay anonymous, told People about the reactions of the Miss Universe hopefuls after learning the selection process may have been rigged.

“Many of us learned through social media, not the Miss Universe Organization, that the preliminary selection for the Top 30 was not only conducted without the presence of the official judges, but before we’ve even competed on stage,” the contestant said. “Many contestants in this pre-picked Top 30 list violate conflict of interest through personal relationships to people of the organization. This revelation came moments after we stepped off stage from our final rehearsal for tomorrow’s preliminaries. It is heartbreaking.”

Harfouch’s allegations come weeks after several of the Miss Universe contestants walked out of a pre-pageant event after a tense confrontation with pageant executive Nawat Itsaragrisil.

Miss Mexico was the first to walk after Itsaragrisil called her a “dummy” for refusing his request that all contestants promote the host country on their social media.

The Miss Universe pageant is still currently scheduled to be broadcast live from Thailand on Friday.

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