No win for Tatu as Irish telepoll released

CLAIMS by Russian pop act, Tatu, that a cock-up in the Irish voting system denied them victory in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest have proved to be groundless.

The much-hyped, pseudo-lesbian duo blamed a decision by RTÉ to rely on the vote of a stand-by jury rather than the results of a national telephone poll for losing them valuable points.

Comments by Tatu prompted a Russian TV channel to lodge a complaint with the European Broadcasting Union after they were awarded no votes by the Irish jury. It later emerged that Ireland was the only one of 26 countries which had to switch its voting system during the competition.

Tatu believed Ireland's telepoll, if counted, would have made them the first Russian entry to win Eurovision.

However, the results of the RTÉ telepoll, which were released for the first time this weekend, show Tatu's entry, Don't Believe, Don't Be Afraid recorded a score of no points from both Irish voting systems.

An RTÉ spokesperson said the information proved the overall result of the competition was unaffected by the Irish jury's result.

RTÉ and Eircom, which carried out the telephone voting system for the national broadcaster, initially refused to reveal the results of the telepoll.

Russia eventually finished third in the competition, three points behind Turkish singer, Sertab Erener.

However, the telepoll would have placed Tatu in second place ahead of the Belgian entry as the Irish standby jury awarded the song 10 points eight points more than the national audience.

RTÉ decided to use its standby jury as the voting figures did not come in time to be used in the programme, even though Eircom maintained that the station had the results within the regulatory time limit.

It has also emerged that almost half of all votes registered in the Irish telepoll were invalid as they were received outside the five-minute time limit.

Almost 57,000 of over 106,000 votes recorded were not counted due to some breach of Eurovision rules. Over 15,000 votes were deemed ineligible as callers tried to register a vote for the Irish entry, Mickey Joe Harte, contrary to the contest's rules.

In June, an investigation by the European Broadcasting Union concluded there was no improper conduct on RTÉ's part in following the rules of the competition.