'It's a pressure to see who's Top 10'

While Miss Sri Lanka Anarkalli Jay thinks it's a great idea that Miss World pageant decided to let its audience help pick the winner, Miss Kenya says it has created added tension.

Miss Sri Lanka Anarkalli Jay thinks it's a great idea that the Miss World pageant decided to let its television audience help pick the winner.

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"You get to reach out to more people and let them know what your country and your people are about," said Jay, 17, an aspiring actress in her homeland.

For the first time this year, the pageant invited viewers to vote for their favorite contestants by Internet, phone or mobile phone text message as 107 women competed for the crown in the final on Saturday in this Chinese beach resort.

The pageant is being held for a second straight year in Sanya, on Hainan Island in the South China Sea, and organisers announced on Friday that it will take place here again next year. Votes from the viewing public were tabulated using a formula devised by the pageant that was meant to keep contestants from big countries from getting an unfair advantage.

Judges were ready to step in and make the decision in case the system crashed.

Pre-pageant voting was tracked online, which created added tension as the final neared, said Miss Kenya Juliet Ochieng. "It's a pressure just to go on the Internet to see who is Top 10," she said.

"When you have all these nations present, for a young woman it's an excellent opportunity to communicate with the world," said Julia Morley, president of the London-based Miss World organization. Contestants "are rewarded by purely knowing a large number of people from across the world that will always be part of their friendship," Morley said. "I think it opens their eyes to a lot of situations around the world that they would otherwise not know or know with a slightly different view."