Eurovision Eurovision 2022 Azerbaijan Georgia Montenegro

Eurovision 2022: Voting irregularities in the 2nd semi-final

The EBU came with a statement that said that there have been voting irregularities in no less than 6 countries which competed in the second Semi-final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, held in Turin, Italy. The countries in which the irregularities occurred were the following: Georgia, Montenegro, Romania, Azerbaijan, Poland, and San Marino.

The EBU statement says the following:

“In the analysis of jury voting by the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) pan-European voting partner after the Second Dress Rehearsal of the Second Semi-Final of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, certain irregular voting patterns were identified in the results of six countries.

In order to comply with the Contest’s Voting Instructions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate a substitute aggregated result for each country concerned for both the Second-Semi Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records).

This process was acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor.

The EBU takes any suspected attempts to manipulate the voting at the Eurovision Song Contest extremely seriously and has the right to remove such votes in accordance with the Official Voting Instructions, irrespective of whether or not such votes are likely to influence the results and/or outcome of the voting.”

– Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU)

The 6 countries involved

The voting irregularities sparked disbelieve in the 6 countries involved, which we by now know were the following: Georgia, Montenegro, Romania, Azerbaijan, Poland, and San Marino. In the days after the contests most of these countries came with statements about this matter.

Poland

Telewizja Polska 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.

In the coming days, Telewizja Polska will explain the situation with representatives of the European Broadcasting Union, which is the organizer 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.”

– Telewizja Polska

Montenegro

The public broadcaster of Montenegro, RTCG, has demanded a clarification from the EBU as to know why their votes were not seen as valid during the second Semi-final and the Grand Final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The jury votes of the Montenegrin jury were the result of regular voting, and it was certified by the EBU, thus RTCG does not see any reason for their votes to be named “irregular”. Next to this, RTCG states that the votes of the jury were in-line with the results of others and with the end result of the Grand Final.

Montenegro - Flag

Romania

The Romanian broadcaster, TVR, came with a statement that stated the following:

“Romanian Television has fully assumed its commitment to participate in Eurovision 2022, paying the participation fee and preparing, together with the WRS team, a project that has enjoyed the appreciation of the public.

However, we were surprised to find that the result of the Romanian jury’s vote was not taken into account in the calculation of the final ranking, the organizers assigning another set of scores to the competitors in the final, on behalf of the jury of our country. We specify that the Romanian jury decided to give maximum score to the representatives of Moldova.

In a message sent to the representatives of the participating countries, on Saturday night, just during the announcement of the results of the vote of the national juries for the ESC final (around 01.00), EBU stated that: European Broadcasting Union (EBU) After the second rehearsal of the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2022, certain irregular (“irregular”) voting patterns were identified in the results of six countries. In order to comply with the Contest Voting Instructions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate a substitute aggregate result for each country in question, both for the second semi-final and for the grand final (calculated on the basis of the results of other countries voting similar) .”

– TVR, Romanian National Broadcaster

Georgia

The Georgian national broadcaster, GPB, has stated the following:

At the Eurovision Song Contest, the national jury from Georgia gave the highest rating – the first place to Ukraine, which means 12 points. This is evidenced by a notarized document sent to the organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The Public Broadcaster is clarifying the details with the organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest.”

– GPB, Georgian National Broadcaster

Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani national broadcaster, Ictimai Television, has sent an official statement to the EBU, saying the following:

“The events that took place during the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, and the decisions made after tha,t were met with great regret by the Azerbaijan Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.

We declare that we sent the names of the countries that were voted for by the Azerbaijani jury to the organizers of the competition. According to this list, 12 points were given to Ukraine. In response, the organizers of the competition urged the representatives of the Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company to announce other results during the points sequence of this year’s contest, without giving any further explanation. We have categorically rejected this request.

An official letter of inquiry was immediately sent to the organizers of the contest, and we said that we would announce the votes of our jury, and not the results of the live broadcast, and we also mentioned to the organizers that we would make this issue a public one. Only then we were informed that there were “irregularities” in the votes of six countries, including Azerbaijan’s, during Thursday’s Semi-final. It should be noted that we have not been informed about these irregularities from Thursday until the end of the Grand Final on Saturday, and no “evidence” has been provided so far.

Despite the fact that the representative of the Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company was ready to announce the results of the jury voting in Azerbaijan during the broadcast, the European Broadcasting Union decided on  announcing their results on our behalf. The failure to announce the points by the Azerbaijani representative in Baku was named a “technical problem”, which it was not.

We did not have any technical problems to announce the votes live. We emphasize once again that we have not given the organizers any right to announce the votes on behalf of Azerbaijani Public Television.

We are waiting for an official response to this issue and we plan to take the next steps accordingly. We hope that the situation will be resolved soon, provided that justice is done.”

– Ictimai, Azerbaijani National Broadcaster

San Marino

There has not been an official statement of San Marino regarding the voting irregularities of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Concluding

We cannot state anything yet, concerning the conclusion of the voting irregularities, because we do not have any more information than can be read above. In case more information becomes available concerning this matter, we will inform you

Eurovision

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