Eurovision 2022 is over, but it seems that the scandal is here to stay for longer than usual.
The EBU has released a detailed announcement regarding irregular voting patterns in semi-final 2.
The jury vote of 6 countries was detected as irregular: Azerbaijan, Romania, San Marino, Montengeo, Georgia and Poland.
According to the EBU, it seems like the jury panel of each of these 6 countries ranked the 5 others in their top 5 or top 7.
Information about the irregularities in the vote has already been hinted at in the grand final on May 14th. However, the full explanation came only on May 19th
You can read the full details in our previous article here:
Now is the time for national broadcasters to react:
TVR has released several announcements regarding the issue. Following the situation created and the image damage brought to public television, TVR representatives will consider the withdrawal of Romania from future editions of Eurovision and take action in court from the event organizers.
TVR is not satisfied with the way that the EBU took action, and especially the communication with them. According to TVR, EBU hasn’t clarified the suspicions after semi-final 2.
Due to this, TVR wasn’t able to investigate the jury votes on time and make an impact.
TVR thinks that releasing the full details by the EBU 8 days after the jury votes might be too late.
The broadcaster sees it as damaging to their reputation.
Furthermore, the Romanian broadcaster blames the EBU for replacing the jury points non-transparently. They even raise other countries as being advantages by this solution: Sweden, Australia and Belgium.
In the end, TVR clarified that there weren’t any technical issues with broadcasting their jury points. Romanian spokesperson Eda Marcus was ready to go live, and the connection worked perfectly.
TVR has noted that Australia, Belgium and Sweden have also ranked each other in high places.
However, it seems that isn’t aligned with the definition of EBU for irregular votes.
According to Azerbaijani Eurovision website 12xal, we can give you the reaction of the national broadcaster İctimai Television.
The broadcaster claims there weren’t any technical issues going live and announces the jury vote on the grand final.
The EBU didn’t update İctimai Television on time, and therefore it was impossible to take action on time.
When the EBU notified the broadcaster that a different set of points should be announced, the broadcaster refused to replace its votes. Azerbaijan‘s jury was meant to give 12 points to Ukraine in the grand final.
SMRTV has also commented regarding the issue.
The broadcaster said that nothing makes them think our jurors voted for something they didn’t like.
In the grand final, the national jury was meant to give 12 points to Italy, which was replaced by 12 points to Spain.
The broadcaster added:
It is important to underline this because the way in which EBU has moved in this affair seems in our opinion a bit authoritarian rather than inspired by the associations that instead guide and regulate the relations between EBU members. We have already pointed out to EBU our disappointment with the way and we are not referring to just the press release that has just come out. When asked if EBU believed the suspicions of voting irregularities to be 100% founded, the answer was no
RTCG has denied the suspicions.
The national broadcaster claimed that with a small number of countries (18) it is impossible to avoid special patterns in the voting.
They emphasized that those are not accurate assumptions, and not verified information.
TVP released an official statement:
TVP categorically rejects all accusations made against Polish jurors as groundless and absurd. They voted solely according to their feelings and discretion, without taking into account any algorithm, not even the EBU algorithm. Assessing Ukraine as the highest, they expressed their independence and the lack of any connection between their notes and the votes cast by other countries for Poland.
TVP will explain the situation with representatives of the European Broadcasting Union, which is the organiser of the Eurovision Song Contest. They will receive a TVP protest and a demand to improve the transparency of voting and the awarding of points, so as to avoid unnecessary confusion this year in the future.
TVP will claim a more transparent vote on future editions, mainly the algo that stands behind the points replacement made by the EBU.
GBP, the Georgian broadcaster, denied the suspicions.
First of all, they claim that their 12 points in the final should have been granted to Ukraine, however the EBU has replaced them with 12 points to the United Kingdom.
They stated that the jury votes were sent to the EBU on time with all the required procedures and notarisation.
What will happen?
Will we see countries withdrawing from Eurovision 2023 due to this scandal?
Will the EBU release additional clarifications?
