Eurovision 2022: 6 countries accused of irregularities (including San Marino)
The votes of theEurovision 2022 reported irregularities: the EBU did it with an official statement immediately after the proclamation of the victory of Ukraine. The regularity of the Ukrainian victory is not in question (let’s clarify it immediately), but the data analysis led to the re-elaboration of the results after the second general tests of the second semifinal of Eurovision 2022 (we are talking about the evening tests on 11 May, while the second semifinal was broadcast on 12 May on live TV) and the Final.
“The analysis of the votes of the national juries carried out by the EBU partner in charge of the voting after the second general rehearsal of the Second Semifinal of ESC 2022 highlighted some configurations of irregular voting by 6 countries. In accordance with the final voting instructions for the competitions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate an aggregate substitute result for each of the six countries for both the Second Semi-final and Grand Final (calculated on the results of the other countries with similar voting schemes). The procedure was obtained from the Independent Voting Control “. The EBU takes very seriously every little object of ESC voting results and done on the basis of the ES vote of the votes ”.
A rather serious matter, but the EBU in its press release did not clarify which national juries were involved. A quick glance at the summary of the votes published on the official Eurovision website in the very first hours showed 6 countries without data: it is easy to understand, therefore, that they are those whose votes have been canceled and ‘replaced’. It is about Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Romania, Poland and even San Marino.
In practice, in the voting combinations of six countries, voting control bodies found irregular patterns that led to a balancing of the vote for both the Second Semifinal and the Final, recalculated on the basis of the trend of the voting models expressed. from other countries. What does this last step mean the ESCxtra website explains it better: the participating countries are divided into different bands; the votes of the 6 countries at the center of the storm were recalculated on the basis of the votes cast by the countries in the same bracket. To give an example, the votes of Montenegro were recalculated by re-aggregating the votes of Albania, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, with her in Band 1. Semper ESCxtra tells us that Azerbaijan and Georgia are in band 3 together with Ukraine, Armenia and Israel (and to Russia disqualified), while Romania and Poland in band 5. We miss San Marino, whose public TV – we remember – is owned by Rai.
The reactions of the accused of irregularities Countries
The TV networks affected by the Eurovision 2022 voting case have made their voices heard.
Montenegro’s response
There public television of Montenegro RTCG issued a press release to ask by indicating an EBU and to clarify that they have not violated any of the provisions of the regulation, that they have carried out the entire voting procedure on a regular basis and that they have no one on their correctness. “In the Grand Final the votes are cast and live and the choices of our jury coincided for the most part with the final results” reads the note. The network then asked the EBU about the emissions and undertakes to keep the public updated on developments. Their votes were cast live and assigned to those now available on the site. However, we remember that the irregularities also concern the second semifinal and there we have no feedback with the live broadcast.
Romania’s response
Also there TVRthe public TV of the Romaniaasked for its EBU position and clarified its position with a press release. She claims that she has not been informed of the irregularities in the register and specifies that their 12 points have been assigned to Moldova: a figure they do not find, however, since it now appears that the 12 have given them to Ukraine. And remember that during the final these votes were announced directly by Martin Ostendahl.
“We are very surprised to find that Romania’s votes have not been taken into account. Romania was not named in the statement released after the final and neither received any official communication after the second semifinal regarding “Irregular voting patterns “. The head of relations between TVR and EBU noted the discrepancy between the votes posting the day before, after the second dress rehearsal, votes announced during the event. Furthermore, TVR representative Eda Marcus was unable to connect live for the results, as he had initially agreed with the organizers. Furthermore, on Saturday, the TVR voter participated in two remote calls with the organizers to establish the rules for the presentation / positioning / reading of Ede Marcus. She also participated in the trials without ever having any communication regarding suspicions or the organizer’s intention to change the vote of the Romanian jurors.
We emphasize that the national jury followed the show and at the end voted in the presence of a notary and respecting all the rules imposed by the organizer. therefore the rules have changed during construction without the participants being warned of the fact that some votes had been changed by the organizers. TVR asked the EBU for official clarifications on the votes, moreover with a non-transparent calculation. TVR reserves the right to adopt the most suitable measures “.
In a subsequent press release, TVR announced the votes assigned by the national jury, made up of Sanda Ladoși, Luminița Anghel, Ovi Jacobsen, Liviu Elekeș and Mihai Pocorschi.
Moldova-12 points
Greece – 10 points
Poland-8 points
Netherlands-7 points
Azerbaijan – 6 points
Australia-5 points
Italy-4 points
Spain-3 points
Finland-2 points
Lithuania-1 point
The reaction of Azerbaijan
We were unable to collect a statement from the ITV – İctimai Television Azerbaijan regarding Eurovision 2022. Even for them, however, it was not possible to announce their votes live due, as mentioned live, to connection problems. These are the votes communicated by Osterdahl live and available on the Eurovision website. According to what was published by TVP World, the Azerbaijani jury had awarded 12 points to Ukraine. Public TV asked the EBU for clarification.
Georgia’s response
Georgian public TV too GPB, to which 1TV which broadcasts the ESC belongs, issued a statement regarding the reshaping of the votes cast by the national jury. Underlining that they had never had any interest in manipulating the results of the ESC, Georgian public had made known the TV that would have discovered their votes, only to find out directly through the announcement of Osterdahl that the 12 points originally awarded to Ukraine had been turned over to the UK. Also in their case, as for Romania and Azerbaijan, the connection was ‘blown’.
“Given the interest in what happened with the votes for the ESC 2022, GPB provides its own version of the facts. Let’s start by saying that the representatives of the national juries make their evaluations during the second general rehearsals on the eve. The points have been written, authenticated by a notary, and according to the rules established by the organization. Having sent the document, EBU made sure that the procedure had been carried out correctly.
The national jury had awarded the 12 points to Ukraine. But live the 12 points of Georgia were awarded to UK. The Georgian delegation presents in Turin protested with the EBU. An investigation into what happened is currently underway and we are awaiting the outcome.
GPB also explains that Georgia has no potential interest in manipulating the results, especially since the country’s representative (the Circus Mircus, ed) was not among the finalists. For the national jury it was essential to get the 12 points to a worthy competitor, in this case Ukraine, which also achieved a convincing victory. GPB is in constant contact with the EBU and hopes to receive the results of the request soon, which will be communicated to viewers ”.
The reaction of Poland
The spokesperson for Poland was able to announce live during the Grand Final the points awarded by her national jury. The 12 points went to Ukraine. A reaction is recoverable on TVP worldwhich, however, mentions another controversy, that between Poland and the Ukrainian jury, guilty of not giving even one vote to the Poles. However, there do not seem to be any official protests on the part of Polish TV regarding the recalculation of votes, which obviously present clarifications in the general wake of the case.
San Marino’s response
No statement on the RTV website, the San Marino TV. The representative was able to participate in the votes of the jury during the Eurovision 2022 final. We will see what happens.
Police stop a hacker attack during the Grand Final
Meanwhile, the Police made it known with an official statement that they had foiled two hacker attacks during the First Semifinal and in the Final of Eurovision 2022.
“The CNAIPIC operations room carried out more than 1000 hours of monitoring with over 100 Postal Police specialists. The entire network was monitored and billions of computer data also coming from the various social platforms were analyzed. During the activities, millions of analyzes of data relating to compromised IPs were carried out, which made it possible to issue important security procedures. In collaboration with ICT Rai and Eurovision TV, various computer attacks of a DDOS nature aimed at network infrastructures during voting operations and singing performances were mitigated ”.
In the case, the data of televoting should be involved, rather than national juries. The Russian hacker group Killnet had announced actions to ‘boycott’ the ESC, but the Postal Police – which does not indicate ‘responsible’ in the statement – would be avoiding the worst.