Seven participating countries are alleged of having systematically swapped votes at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 from Tallin, as norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reported. The newspaper claims that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in internal reports branded the possibility of an agreed mutual voting as “very likely”. The parttakers in this cheating are said to be the national juries of Cyprus, Greece, Russia, FYROM, Malta and Romania.
According to Dagbladet, they learned from Kato M. Hansen, president of the Norwegian Eurovision fan club OGAE, that the head of the French delegation, Bruno Berberes, reported about offers of the Cypriotic delegation to swap votes at an EBU meeting. Apart from that, the newspaper named no sources for their story.
At this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Riga, swapping of votes is technically impossible as all coutries have to use televoting, except of Russia, where the coverage of mobile phone technology isn't wide enough.
