KINGSTON, Jamaica- The crowning of Athaliah Samuel as Ms World Trinidad and Tobago in mid-June has raised unending controversy with questions surrounding her suitability as the best representative of the twin-island republic.

Samuel, 24, was handpicked to represent the country by local franchise holders and has been severely bashed on social networking sites, mostly because of her physical appearance.

Athaliah  Samuel…Miss World Trinidad and Tobago 2012 Photos: Tumblr

A blogging site www.triniturner.com, posted photographs of the representative and asked viewers to express their thoughts, mainly because of the protests.

Most of the comments were harsh, with one blogger saying, “No offense to the new Miss World Trinidad and Tobago — overall she is the ugliest representative I have ever seen…Trinidad is out for a huge embarrassment. She is unattractive dried up and hard looking”.

Another came to Samuel’s defence arguing that she clearly did not have enough time to prepare as she was chosen instead of going through the regular pageant process.

Another site www.entertainmentmacco.com has also launched a page in support of the newly selected representative.

“All this talk about loving our country and being patriotic many have created campaigns to ridicule this beautiful and educated young woman; again the ‘Once-a-year I love my country syndrome’”.

“Before we applaud this young woman for carrying the country on her back and choosing country over her job…many of you have chosen to chastise and demoralise her,” the site said.

According to Trinidad and Tobago Newsday newspaper, the competition, which is usually held in November or December, was moved to August. This left the organisers little time to hold national screenings.

Daniel Seebaran, Miss World National coordinator, said that with the approval of the governing Miss World body, he had no choice but to hand pick a local delegate to participate in the pageant.

Seebaran said he is confident Samuel will do well as a representative.

“We are very proud of Athaliah; she is an excellent choice. We had limited choice to properly select someone because the pageant was moved up,” Seebaran was quoted as saying.;

“After going through applicants from past years we realised that some of them would need a lot of time. We realised that Athaliah has a lot of experience. We interviewed her to make sure she was physically and mentally ready and Miss World accepted her”, he said.

According to the article, Samuel admitted to being anxious and hopes the people of Trinidad and Tobago will open their minds and hearts and accept her as their representative.

“It feels good to know that I have the responsibility to represent my country and I am confident about my capabilities but at the same time there are those who are not willing to give me and opportunity to prove myself,” she said.

The Miss World 2012 competition will be held in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China on August 18.

Jamaica will be represented by Deanna Robbins, 21, who was crowned on June 23.