Snit Habteab's Miss World vote surges past 4.7 million, locking in Eritrea's spot in the Top 40

Snit Habteab Tewoldemedhin, Eritrea's first-ever Miss World contestant, is still Africa's runaway leader in the pageant's Round 1 People's Choice vote, with her point total on the official voting platform, missworld.1voting.com, standing at 4,755,537 as of Thursday — up from the 374,061 votes Asmara Post reported on August 23. The platform's Africa leaderboard shows her well clear of second-placed Ethiopia (Ruth Yirgalem, 2,110,960 points) and third-placed Nigeria (Soye Karibi-George, 1,994,144 points).

Under the rules published on Miss World's own site, the contestant with the most voting points in each of the pageant's four continental groups — Africa, Asia & Oceania, Europe, and the Americas & Caribbean — is named that region's Continental People's Choice winner and secures direct entry into the Top 40, with Round 1 votes carrying over into later rounds. Separately, whichever contestant holds the highest point total worldwide, across all four continents, becomes the overall People's Choice winner and advances directly into the Top 6 — a distinct, higher bar than leading a single continent.

Habteab's rapid rise has been driven in large part by an organized push from Eritreans at home and in the diaspora; Eritrean outlets including TesfaNews have been tracking and promoting her standing on social media as the vote has climbed. Round 1 voting remains open through September 4, alongside a separate schedule of on-site pageant events in Nha Trang, Vietnam, that includes the Head-to-Head Challenge Habteab reached the continental top five of last week, as previously reported.

This report draws on reporting from TesfaNews, the Miss World organization's own site, and the official Miss World 2026 voting platform, missworld.1voting.com.