The Miss Pacific Islands beauty pageant was supposed to show that the area is “stronger and happier when we are unified”.

Instead, it descended into a regional crisis after allegations of vote rigging, online death threats and the judges being prevented from leaving the Solomon Islands by police.

Before the finale, contestants had said that the glamorous week-long pageant – which featured a sarong parade instead of swimsuits, and traditional clothing instead of evening gowns – was not dominated by “rivalry or hate”. But those ideals were undermined after Litara Ieremia-Allan, the Samoan entrant, was crowned the winner ahead of Tonga’s Rachael Guttenbeil on a tie-break vote at a packed event.

Trouble began after an initial tie between the Samoan and Tongan contestants, according to Pamela Naesol, an accountant from the Solomon Islands who was appointed as a “scrutineer” of results.

After the results were fed into a spreadsheet, Miss Tonga and Miss Samoa were level – meaning the head judge Leiataualesa Jerry Brunt, a lawyer and hotelier from Samoa, had a casting vote. He picked Ms Ieremia-Allan, “ultimately crowning Miss Samoa as the winner”.