EBU responds to allegations on voting

eurovision.tv reports:

On behalf of the EBU, Bjørn Erichsen, Director of Eurovision TV, responded to allegations questioning the legitimacy of the voting of this year's Eurovision Song Contest. The voting procedure of the contest has been criticised for neighbour voting and the diasporas voting.


The rules of the Eurovision Song Contest state that all viewers in the 43 participating countries can vote.

Erichsen: "If a viewer likes the song from a neighbouring country, they can vote for it, and if a Polish girl lives in Ireland she can vote for Poland. You cannot vote for your own country, from your own country. But the EBU and its partners do not - and should not have - any possibility of controlling the nationality, identity or preferences of the individual voter. If somebody were to seek to influence the voters to vote for a specific song, they would have to approach the 105 million audience to convince them. Ultimately, they would have to influence the entire potential 640 million audience in the EBU countries, as nobody knows who will switch on their TV that evening."

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