It is a scandal of “unprecedented magnitude” which is affecting the big Eurovision song contest. While Ukraine is still celebrating its victory thanks to its group Kalush Orchestra, and France deplores its penultimate place, the performance of the program seems to have experienced irregularities. According to a press release sent by the European Broadcasting Union, which runs the competition, on Thursday evening during the second semi-final, cheating “on an unprecedented scale” involving six countries was discovered.
“Four of these six countries have received the maximum score of 12 points at least once“, announces the EBU before explaining: “Four of the juries placed the other five countries in their Top 5, one of the juries placed the same five countries in its Top 6 and the last one placed four of these countries in its Top 4 and the fifth in its Top 7.” The six countries accused of this deception are Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino. The EBU speaks “irregularities on an unprecedented scale“.
On Friday 20 May 2022, the EBU therefore announced that, in accordance with the rules and taking into account the irregularities found, it was replacing the votes of these countries accused of cheating by algorithmically calculated Top 10 for the semi-final. The same calculation model will be applied for the final in which three of these countries (Azerbaijan, Poland and Romania) took part. The twelve points obtained by Romania were thus awarded not to Moldova but to Ukraine, which won the competition.
“Given the unprecedented nature of the irregularity detected in the second semi-final, the EBU, in consultation with the pan-European voting partner and the Independent Voting Controller, has decided, in accordance with the contest’s voting instructions, to exercise their right to suppress the votes“
CT
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