After the closure of the registration exercise on February 8, a total of 402 girls have registered to contest for Miss Rwanda 2021, organisers have said.

The auditions kick off virtually this weekend, from February 13-19.

According to Dieudonne Ishimwe, the brains behind the beauty pageant, this year’s edition has attracted a bigger number compared to the previous editions.

He explained that the beauty contest continues to attract a bigger number of aspirants because of the platform Miss Rwanda serves to young women as well as opportunities existing in the contest.

"The rising number in registration for the contest is an indication that people have come to know what the pageant is truly about and what its purpose stands for,” he said.

The projects achieved by previous winners and previous contestants inspire others to participate. This is not a just a beauty pageant but a platform for girl empowerment and existing opportunities,” he added.

Another crucial factor that saw an increase in registration is that any young woman will this time be allowed to participate in Miss Rwanda 2021 as long as they are in a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) range.

This comes after a number of aspirants missed out on the chance to contest for Miss Rwanda crown in the past editions due to not meeting the weight and height criteria.

 "When the contest becomes more open and inclusive the number of aspirants increases. This is a beauty contest for girls and we are ensuring that more young women feel included and welcome to participate,” Ishimwe said.

Selection of contestants province by province begins on Saturday, February 13.

The judges will conduct the selection process taking notes of how aspirants fared with their recorded presentation sent to the organisers .

On February 20, a day after closing the virtual auditions, the judges will announce all provincial representatives for the contest.

Online and SMS voting will kick off on February 22 to determine those who will make it to the pre-selection exercise that will take place on March 6 at La Palisse Hotel, Nyamata.

The preselection will then decide the top 20 who will progress to a two-week boot camp which will be held from March 7 at the same hotel.

Expensive organising

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, public gatherings are banned until further notice.

With the contest going to be held in a bubble, organisers are already counting losses because they won’t be able to collect entry fees as it was with previous editions.

However, Ishimwe said they could not consider canceling the contest as their goal is to provide opportunities for girls.

"The new format looks more expensive than expected because we were forced to increase the budget that was earlier allocated to make sure everything is catered for. We know it will cost us a lot but we have to carry on so that existing opportunities go to the winning contestant as planned,” he said.

Miss Rwanda will be announced in a grand finale virtual event slated for March 20 live on Rwanda Television.