A statement has been issues by the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest in relation to its voting systems after 'certain irregular voting patterns were identified'. It comes amid calls from some fans to scrap the professional juries all together.
Saturday night's event saw Ukraine folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest with the 66th contest. The UK’s Sam Ryder came in second place with his uplifting pop song Space Man, marking the first time in 20 years that the UK has placed in the top three. Graham Norton, who presented the contest on BBC One, described the UK's success as 'a red letter moment'.
But organisers have now spoken out after some irregular voting patterns were detected, Birmingham Live reports, meaning the votes were replaced by aggregate scores. Votes from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino were all replaced.
The EBU issued a statement addressing the votes, which said: "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 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."
Some viewers have called for jury votes to be scrapped as they slammed this year's "baffling" scores. @DamJef declared: "SCRAP THE “PROFESSIONAL” JURIES!"
