Eurovision bosses say suspicious voting on an ‘unprecedented’ scale in six countries taking part in Eurovision 2022 resulted in their votes being excluded from the Grand Final.
Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, winners of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Italy. Photo: EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett
The European Broadcasting Union EBU, which runs the Eurovision Song Contest, on Thursday said it had identified voting irregularities in six countries taking part in Eurovision 2022, including Montenegro, Romania and Poland.
It said “irregular voting patterns” were spotted also in Azerbaijan, Georgia and San Marino following the second dress rehearsal and second semi-final of the competition.
“Four of the six juries all placed five of the other countries in their top five, taking into account they could not vote for themselves. One jury voted for the same five countries in their top six and the last of the six juries placed four of the others in the top four… Four of the six received at least one set of 12 points which is the maximum that can be awarded,” the EBU said in a press release.
“A jury voting pattern irregularity of such a scale is unprecedented,” it added.
On May 15, the EBU ruled the votes of six juries invalid after “irregular voting patterns” were detected in the second semi-final and replaced them with a substitute aggregated result instead. It decided that the six juries’ votes in the Grand Final should not be valid either.
Montenegro’s public broadcaster RTCG demanded clarification from the EBU as to why its jury vote was removed from the contest.
“The Montenegrin jury vote was carried out normally and was duly certified by the EBU and we see no reason to suspect any form of irregularity. The way in which our jury voted is largely aligned with the end results of the competition,” it said in a press release.
On May 16, Romanian television said it was surprised that the result of the Romanian jury’s vote was not taken into the final ranking, with the organizers assigning another set of scores to the competitors in the final, on behalf of the country’s jury.
Polish broadcaster TVP responded to the exclusion of Poland’s jury’s vote, denying any involvement in vote manipulation either by the broadcaster or the Polish jurors.
It demanded improved transparency of the votes and in the way of awarding points, in order to avoid unnecessary confusion.
The Eurovision Song Contest, held annually since 1956, is the biggest live non-sporting event in the world with a television audience estimated at over 100 million viewers. Ukraine won the 66th Eurovision song contest, held in Turin, Italy.
The Eurovision contest is very popular in the Western Balkans, and the former Yugoslav countries often come together by supporting each other in the jury vote.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
