The European Broadcasting Union have issued an offcial statement regarding the voting irregularities that were found in semi final 2 of Eurovision 2022.
We first got light of voting irregularities after the final of Eurovision 2022, when the EBU’s independent pan-European Voting Partner detected irregular voting patterns between six countries in semi final 2: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino.
In the second semi final on Thursday May 12th, it was found that:
- four of these six juries all placed five of the other countries in their top five
- one jury had the same five countries in their top six
- the final jury had four of these six countries in their top four, with the fifth country in their seventh place
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Out of these six countries, four of them recieved at least one set of the maximum 12 points.
It was exactly this irregular pattern that was picked up by the pan-European Voting Partner, and acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor, as five of these six countries finished outside of the top seven with the 15 other countries voting in semi final 2 (including Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom who were all allowed to vote in this semi final).
On top of this, four of these six countries ended up in the bottom six of the 15 other countries who were voting in semi final 2. It has been stated that such an irregular voting pattern amongst juries on such a scale as this is unprecendented.Â
As per the Song Contest Rules, and in the Official Voting instructions of the Contest, any jury votes that present irregular voting patterns, the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest has the right to remove these votes, and replace them with an aggregated result calculated automatically. And this is exactly what happened with these six countries.
Due to the irregular voting patterns detected between these six countries during semi final 2 of Eurovision 2022, the EBU along with the pan-European Voting Partner and the Independent Voting Monitor, Â in accordance with the Voting Instructions of the Contest, decided to remove these votes all together and replace them with an aggregated result instead.
This decision was approved by the Chair of the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group, the contests’ governing board, and the Deputy Director General of the EBU.
Countries seek explanation
Over the last few days, some of the countries who jury votes were removed from semi final 2 of Eurovision 2022 have spoken out about the decision to remove their votes. These countries have expressed their confusion as to why there votes were not counted for. Some countries have even spoken out about their jury scores which were read out in the grand final being different to their original jury scores.
The EBU re-confirms its decision to replace the jury votes for these six countries with an aggregated result in the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final 0f Eurovision 2022.
What are your thoughts on these voting irregularities? How do you think such an incident could be avoided in the future? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
