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Azerbaijan’s Public Television releases statement on Eurovision 2022 voting controversy

Politics Materials 16 May 2022 15:01 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijan’s Public Television releases statement on Eurovision 2022 voting controversy
Jani Babayeva
Jani Babayeva
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 16. Things happened during the final stage of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 and decisions made after that were met with regret by Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Azerbaijan (ITV), the company’s press service told Trend.

"We declare that we have sent the names of countries for which the Azerbaijani jury voted to organizers of the competition. According to this list, Ukraine received 12 points. In response, the organizers of the competition asked representatives of ITV to announce other results after the end of the final show without substantiating this in any way. We categorically denied this request,” ITV said.

“An official letter was immediately sent to organizers with a request that we would voice votes of our jury on the air, not the results received from them, and make this situation public.

Only after that, we were informed that during the semi-final, which took place on May 12, some "strangeness" was found in the votes of six countries, including Azerbaijan.

“We were not informed of this "strangeness" from May 21 until the end of final on May 14, and no "evidence" has yet been provided, ITV said.

“Despite the fact that the representative of ITV was ready to announce the results of the voting of the Azerbaijani jury during the broadcast, organizers of the competition did not contact the studio in Baku and announced their results on our behalf. They linked inability to contact the studio in Baku because of technical problems,” the company noted.

“However, we didn't have any technical issues with announcing the votes live. We emphasize once again that we did not give organizers any right to announce voting results on behalf of ITV,” the company added.

“We are waiting for an official answer to this question and plan to take certain steps depending on it. We hope that the situation that has arisen will soon be resolved fairly," ITV’s statement said.

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