reaffirms its decision to replace the irregular votes of the jury from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino
The European Broadcasting Union (UER) –(EBU, for its acronym in English)– confirmed this Thursday the final classification of the 40 participants in the Eurovision Song Contest, after investigating the irregularities discovered in the voting of six countries.
The competition organizer has explained that this year’s competition was “a great success bringing together hundreds of millions of people around the world in unity and celebration”, but as reported on Saturday 14 May, the independent pan-European voting partner of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) discovered irregular voting patterns in the jury votes of six countries that participated in the second semifinal: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, San Marino.
“The integrity of voting, both by the national juries of each country and by viewers voting by telephone or text message, is essential to the success of the program,” he said, adding that it is the duty of the EBU guarantee a valid result. “That’s why any violation of the rules is taken very seriously,” he said.
In that sense, the entity reported this Thursday that in the second semifinal, it was noted that four of the six judges placed five of the other countries in their top five, bearing in mind that they could not vote for themselves.
According to the EBU, a jury voted for the same five countries in the Top 6; and the last of the six judges placed four of the others in their Top 4 and the fifth in their Top 7. Four of the six were awarded at least a combined 12 points, which is the maximum that can be awarded.
The pattern in question, as it has clarified, was discovered as irregular by Pan-European Voting Partner and recognized by Independent Voting Monitor as five of these six countries were placed outside the Top 8 by the juries of the other 15 countries voting in the same semi-final, with three of the Big Five: Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
In addition, four of the six countries qualified among the bottom 6 of the other 15 countries that voted in this semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest. “An irregularity in the jury’s voting pattern of an unprecedented magnitude,” the EBU said.
According to the votes of the second semifinal to which Europa Press had access, Azerbaijan placed Poland, Georgia, Romania, Montenegro and San Marino in the TOP 5; while Georgia placed Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Romania, San Marino and Poland in the top five of the ranking.
In the case of the Montenegrin expert jury, their top six positions went to Georgia, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Romania, San Marino and Poland. Poland, for its part, gave the top five places to San Marino, Azerbaijan, Romania and Montenegro, and placed Georgia seventh in the ranking.
San Marino, Poland, Montenegro, Azerbaijan and Georgia were the top five for the Romanian jury of experts; while San Marino awarded first place to Romania, followed by Georgia, Poland, Montenegro and Azerbaijan.
In this way, the organizing entity of the contest has informed that, as stipulated in the Eurovision Rules and the official voting instructions, if the votes of the national juries show irregular voting patterns (as detected by Pan-European Voting Partner and recognized by the Independent Voting Monitor) , the Eurovision Song Contest executive supervisor has “the right to remove the votes” and “substitute them with an automatically calculated substitute aggregate result to determine the final result of these countries in the second semi-final”.
After consulting with Pan-European Voting Partner and Independent Voting Monitor, the EBU did so “to preserve the integrity of the voting system” and “given the unprecedented nature” of the irregularity discovered in the second semi-final.
“These decisions were approved by the president of the Eurovision Song Contest peer group, the contest’s board of directors and the EBU’s deputy director general in accordance with the requirements of the contest’s voting instructions,” he later confirmed. who has since discussed jury patterns with the relevant broadcasters and given them the opportunity to further investigate the jury vote in their country.
The EBU reaffirms its decision to replace the jury votes of these six countries with a replacement aggregate result in both the second semi-final and the grand final, as well as the final ranking of the 40 participants in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
“The EBU, its members and the Reference Group will continue to work closely to ensure the integrity and success of an event that has been a unique platform for creative talent for 66 years and looks forward to continuing to entertain audiences around the world .” concluded.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
