Some websites are reporting that the televeote / sms numbers for the first two Melodifestivalen semi finals have been published on the internet, esctoday.com can confirm that the results posted on the Swedish wikipedia site results are totally false.
SVT will not publish any voting results except for the total number of votes cast for each show until after the final takes place on 15th March. This is to ensure that tactical voting does not occur and to ensure that all 10 acts have a fair chance in the final.
Not only do SVT refuse to allow their own material to be published on youtube during the competition, the songs that qualify for the final and second chance round can not be played on radio or television until after the last of the finalists are chosen. This is to further ensure that the competition is as fair as possible.
Whilst some websites claim that the 'leaked figures' are damaging to SVT's reputation, esctoday.com has done some very simple mathmatics which proves conclusively that these figures are entirely fictional. The site correctly publishes the actual number of televotes, however the breakdown figures do not match them:
Semi Final One: Total votes cast – 600,804 (total votes according to the breakdown: 421,233)
Semi Final Two: Total votes cast – 752,537 (total votes according to the breakdown: 805,942)
SVT Will publish the voting numbers after the Melodifestivalen final on March 15th.
