365bet�����������籭

LONDON 

The director of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) on Friday said they will look at the voting system amid allegations of manipulation as Israel placed second in this year’s competition.

In an open letter, Martin Green said the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has listened to and engaged closely in the conversations among members, fans and in the media following this year’s ESC.

Austrian singer-songwriter JJ, whose real name is Johannes Pietsch, won this year’s Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest that took place in Basel on May 17.

Israel's Yuval Raphael got second place in the final, which brought mounting criticism in addition to growing calls on the organizer to ban Israel at Eurovision over its brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 53,000 Palestinians.

The result came despite Public Spotify and YouTube streaming data showing that Raphael’s track lags far behind other competitors in terms of popularity, according to a report by The Guardian.

Meanwhile, JJ called for the exclusion of Israel from next year’s contest, saying the competition needs some revisions.

Following the results, broadcasters across Europe have challenged the Eurovision song contest's voting system, as many media reports suggested that the Israeli government's social media channels have been encouraging people to vote for its representative the maximum 20 times permitted.

Congratulating the winner, JJ and the team from ORF, Green said that his performance rightly, clearly and validly won the contest.

In response to criticism, the director of the contest said their "specially designed systems are used to monitor and prevent fraud."

Touching on the system allowing the number of votes per person – 20 per payment method, he asserted that there is no current evidence that it "disproportionally effects" the final result, but added "the question has been asked and so we will look at it."