Eurovision not rigged, says broadcasting union

Following the widespread criticism and in a general climate of increasing mistrust of anything to do with television and voting, the organisers of the Eurovision song contest have held an inquiry into the allegations.

Members of the European Broadcasting Union discussed the allegations following this year’s contest but “found no evidence of irregularities”.

As a further check they engaged PriceWaterhouseCoopers to conduct an audit of the voting system, which again turned up nothing untoward.

Worries about the possibility of vote rigging extend beyond the UK, where the matter was even discussed in an early day motion in the House of Commons.

Malta led calls for the voting system to be overhauled, along with the removal of phone votes in the former Soviet Bloc countries, and Ireland and Andorra also expressed concern over this year’s scoring.

But the head of the contest, Svante Stockselius, insisted block voting could not occur: “We have looked into it and we have had auditors look at it, but it is not possible to manipulate the voting,” he said, adding, “I wouldn’t say 100 per cent because that would be impossible but there is no way you can manipulate the televoting.”It’s just that they have similar tastes in music (another explanation Mr Stockselius was keen to offer).

source: The Malta Independent Online