After the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest took place, the EBU released a statement in regards to voting patterns, which stated that certain irregular voting patterns were identified in six countries during the second semi-final. This, therefore, meant that a calculated aggregated result was then used, for both the second semi-final and the Grand Final for the six countries.
“A jury voting pattern irregularity of such a scale is unprecedented”
Today, the EBU released another statement; detailing further the irregularities in the jury votes from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and San Marino during the second semi-final. The observation shows that four out of the six juries placed five of the other countries in their Top Five.
Alongside its statement, the EBU also showed how the results would look like if the Jury vote of the 6 countries were taken out.
In addition to this, the EBU also showed the original voting of the six countries:
In their statement, the EBU has confirmed that they have discussed the patterns with the relevant broadcasters to give them an opportunity to further investigate the jury voting. They have also confirmed that the rankings for this year are final.
Would the qualifiers change if the original votes were used?
You do wonder; how would this affect the results of the 2nd semi-final? Well, fear not, cos Bruno (@euro_bruno), who was one of the ones that pointed out the irregularities in 2019, did a calculation, which you are able to see:
The calculations show that the 10 qualifiers would remain the same. However, some changes would take place outside of the Top 10; an example of this would be that the 11th place would have been San Marino, instead of North Macedonia, whilst Malta would have been last instead of Georgia.
In its statement, the EBU also explained how an irregular vote is detected during the voting:
What is an ‘irregular vote’?
An irregular vote is detected if multiple security checks are triggered:
a) Deviation from the norm – Does the result reflect the overall taste of the other professional jurors? Bearing in mind that they are all music professionals requested to vote on the basis of the same criteria laid down under the Rules of the Contest (e.g. a national jury puts at the top of its ranking (a) song(s) that the majority of the others
b) Voting Patterns – Are there visible patterns of voting within the jurors?
c) Irregularities – Did the juries observe the Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest?
d) Reoccurring Patterns – Do other countries repeat similar voting patterns?
e) Are there beneficiaries – If deviations occur, who benefits from the result?
If the answer to more than two of these questions is Yes then the pattern is considered as irregular and the votes affected by such irregularity are removed provided that the irregularity is confirmed by the pan-European Voting Partner (benefiting from 17 years of experience administering the ESC voting) and acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor.
What did you think about the latest statement that the EBU released? How would your favorites be affected had the original results been used? Let us know in the comments or on social media. Be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
News Source: EBU
Photo Source: EBU / Corinne Cumming
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