Six country juries are said to have made voting agreements among themselves in the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest. That says media director Jean Philip De Tender of the EBU, the organizing broadcaster, according to The last news†
The Flemish broadcaster VRT also says to have heard ‘from a good source’ that the professional juries had agreed to give each other points. On Saturday, during the final of the musical feast, the organization reported that irregularities had been discovered in the results of six country juries. The results of those countries have therefore been replaced by an alternative result, based on countries with similar voting behaviour.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the festival, has not announced which countries it concerns. It has not yet been officially released what exactly was suspicious about the results. Flemish Jean Philip De Tender, media director at the EBU, now provides more text and explanation The last news†
“On the basis of our data, it seems that the juries of certain countries have made voting agreements among themselves,” says De Tender. “That is often the case, but it is the first time – since the semi-finals were introduced in 2004 – that it has happened on such a large scale.” The director finds it self-evident that action has been taken. “Winning may be a matter of state importance for some countries, the integrity of the song contest is paramount.”
Six countries
De Tender does not want to say which countries are involved, but various international media – including the aforementioned VRT and also the Irish Times – report that the points of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino have changed. They eventually gave all six their douze points to Sweden†
During the broadcast on Saturday, it was not possible to contact the point distributors of Azerbaijan and Romania due to ‘technical problems’. In the meantime, it can be heard behind the scenes that the countries refused to list the points, because the EBU had adjusted their points after discovering the alleged tampering.
Romania says it is surprised that their presenter was not in the picture. ,,That was ready and had already participated during the rehearsal,” says the country’s public broadcaster in a comment† The Romanian professional jury intended to award Moldova the maximum number of points. Also the public broadcaster of Georgia has since asked the EBU for clarification and has sent a notarial document stating that the country’s expert jury has awarded Ukraine twelve points.
The tender is not yet available for comment.
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