EBU boss: ‘Song contest juries from six countries have agreed to vote with each other’

The votes of the jury from the six countries that took part in the second semifinal and final of the Eurovision Song Contest were not counted because they were suspected of reaching mutual voting agreements. Jean Philip De Tender, CEO of the organizing publisher European Broadcasting Union (EBU), told the Belgian newspaper latest newsI

“Based on our data, it seems that juries from some countries have reached a voting agreement with each other,” De Tender explains why the jury scores of the six countries were deemed invalid. According to the CEO of EBU, such deals often come from data, but this is the first time since the semifinals (in 2004) started on such a large scale.

During Saturday night’s tally, an EBU message appeared online that the jury votes from these six countries had been adjusted. Instead of a jury list, a new score distribution has been made with a calculation based on the voting behavior of comparable countries. It happened to these countries in the second semi-final and final.

Although the EBU does not want to reveal which countries are involved, various international media write that these are Azerbaijan, San Marino, Romania, Montenegro, Georgia and Poland. No ties have been established with Azerbaijan and Romania to give them 12 points. Technical issues were discussed during the broadcast, but it has now been suggested that this may also be related to possible tampering with sounds.

Romanian and Georgian broadcasters are angry

The Romanian broadcaster announced that the jury wanted to award all twelve points to Moldova in the final, as they went to Ukraine in the competition. The jury would give Ukraine the lead, while Georgia saw all twelve points go to England. The Georgian broadcaster has asked the EBU for clarification.

It is not known why the EBU did not publish the corrected result on Thursday after the second semi-final and why the same juries from the respective countries were allowed to vote again for the final.

Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest because it won the television vote due to force majeure. The country is in fourth place among the juries. The Netherlands finished eleventh with the S10. He placed eighth on the juries and fourteenth in public.