Semi Final voting error in Italian televote identified?

Although the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest officially wrapped up last week, a voting error discovered earlier in the week was identified. This left the EBU with no other choice but to re-shuffle the final scoreboard to reflect the corrected results. But was that truly the end of the fiasco?

Italian broadcaster, RAI, have since released the full televoting results for the second semi final and Grand Final. On closer inspection, there appears to be a discrepency in the Italian televotes published by RAI and the points listed by the EBU following the final broadcast.

RAI published televote results		EBU published results
Albania	16.08%	Albania	12pts
Romania	10.39%	Romania	10pts
Russia	9.92%	Norway	8pts
Moldova	8.66%	Russia	7pts
Norway	8.58%	Switzerland	6pts
Switzerland	5.93%	Moldova	5pts
North Macedonia	5.47%	Azerbaijan	4pts
Azerbaijan	5.40%	The Netherlands	3pts
Malta	4.42%	Malta	2pts
Lithuania	4.13%	North Macedonia	1pt

We contacted a senior member of the Italian delegation who confirmed to us that the results published on RAI’s website were correct. They were also unaware of the conflicting results.

So what exactly does this mean? Well if RAI’s data is indeed correct, it would mean Russia received the third highest televote in the country, instead of Norway. There would also be gains for Moldova, North Macedonia and Lithuania. The biggest change here however, is the fact that Lithuania now enter the top 10, with a televoting percentage of 4.13%. This ultimately means Lithuania, who according to the EBU data, received 93 points in the semi final would gain a point, resulting in a tie with Denmark for tenth place – currently listed at 94 points.

According to the EBU rules in the event of a tiebreak situation, the song that received the most points from all the National Audiences is ranked the highest. This leaves us with the question, should Lithuania have qualified for the grand final?

We have reached out to the EBU for comment.