The Polish broadcaster, TVP, has responded to the exclusion of Poland’s jury votes from Eurovision 2022. They deny any involvement in vote manipulation from either the broadcaster or the Polish jurors.
As previously stated by the EBU, 6 countries in Eurovision 2022 had their jury votes removed due to irregular voting patterns. Poland was one of these countries, the others were Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, Montenegro and San Marino. Three of these countries, Georgia, Romania and Azerbaijan had their Grand Final votes announced by Martin Osterdahl. This was stated to be due to connection issues.
As such, along with the other 5 countries, Poland’s jury vote was nullified and replaced with an aggregated score of other countries with valid jury votes and similar voting methods. In Poland’s case, this was an aggregate of the other countries in Pot 5, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Moldova. Romania also had issues with their jury vote, so Poland’s jury vote was comprised of an aggregate of the other four countries in the pot. This means that Poland’s jury vote was identical to Romania’s.
The Polish broadcaster’s response is as follows (in Polish here):
They deny any involvement in voting manipulation, that the jurors voted according to their own feelings and discretion. The original Polish 12 was given to Ukraine, which the broadcaster claims was the jurors’ decision and unrelated to any votes cast by other countries for Poland.
They have asked for a further response from the EBU, joining the broadcasters from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Montenegro in asking for further explanation and clarification on the issue.
The broadcaster’s statement
Polish Television categorically rejects all accusations made against the Polish jurors as groundless and ridiculous. They voted solely according to their own feelings and discretion, without taking into account any algorithm, not even the EBU’s own. By giving the highest marks to Ukraine, they demonstrated their independence and the lack of any connection between their marks and the votes cast by other countries for Poland.
In the next few days Polish Television will be explaining the situation to representatives of the European Broadcasting Union, which is the organiser of the Eurovision Contest. They will be informed of TVP’s protest and demand to improve the transparency of the votes and the way of awarding points, in order to avoid the unnecessary confusion this year.
TVP (translated from Polish)
Poland in Eurovision 2022
Poland finished 12th in the final with 151 points. Like the other countries affected by these voting issues, they were in semi 2, from which they qualified in 6th place. Ochman’s dramatic ballad “River” got 105 points from the public and 46 points from the jury in the Grand Final.
Unlike some other countries affected by the voting issues, Poland presented their votes as normal. Ida Nowakowska presented the Polish points and awarded Ukraine 12 points. In this case, the aggregate 12 and the intended Polish 12 were the same country, Ukraine. It is very likely the intended points differed for the lower vote totals.
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