Belarusian Producer To Sue Eurovision Broadcaster EBU Over Vote Dismissal

Belarusian producer Viktor Drobysh has told Sputnik he will take the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to court for not counting the country's jury vote in the final score of Eurovision 2019 song contest

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2019) Belarusian producer Viktor Drobysh has told Sputnik he will take the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to court for not counting the country's jury vote in the final score of Eurovision 2019 song contest.

EBU said Belarus broke the contest's rules after the chair of its jury revealed to the local news website tut.by that the jury had voted almost unanimously and named the semi-final entries he liked. An aggregated result was then used to determine to whom Belarusian votes would go in the final.

"I am going to sue the EBU ... We were not just deprived of an opportunity to vote but were handed an envelope at the last minute and told to announce a result they came up with on their own.

It had nothing to do with how the jury and the people voted," Drobysh said.

He added the jury wanted to make clear to the world's audience that the score determined by EBU was different from their own estimates but the alliance of European broadcasters put its foot down.

"There would have been a scandal otherwise because that's not how you do it, because they should have said that was not how we voted," the producer emphasized.

Dutch singer Duncan Laurence finished first after his song "Arcade" scored 492 points, 27 points ahead of second-placed Italy represented by Mahmoud singing "Soldi." Russia's Sergey Lazarev with "Scream" finished in third place. Belarusian teen singer Zena was second to last.