Ariska Putri Pertiwi became the first Indonesian to win a major international beauty pageant after being crowned Miss Grand International 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The ladies of Southeast Asia dominated the finals of the pageant as Ariska beat Miss Philippines Nicole Cordoves and Miss Thailand Supaporn Malisorn, who came second and third respectively.
Ariska also won the Best National Costume award, the outcome of which was determined by online votes.
The Miss Grand International pageant expects its winners to be role models for the contest’s ‘Stop the War and Violence’ campaign. It’s probably quite relevant then that during the final question round, the contestants were asked whether they would choose Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump to help them stop war and violence, to which Ariska answered Clinton. Miss Philippines chose Trump (for which she was apparently booed by the audience).
With her victory, Ariska became the fourth Miss Grand International and the first winner from Asia. She is also the first Indonesian to win a major international beauty pageant.
