The interest in the voting during Polish national final Eurowizja 2003 exceeded all expectations. As eurowizja.com reported today, 300,000 SMS votes were waiting to be counted, when the host of the final, Artur Orzech, announced that Ich Troje was the winner.
Just a few hours before the final, the Polish broadcaster TVP showed a live interview with the president of a company responsible for the voting. “We are ready even for 100,000 votes, but nobody supposes such a huge number”, he said.
By the end of the final, the host said almost 13,000 votes had being given. Many people were dissapointed they couldn't vote because of overload in the network. Eurowizja.com wrote today that the total number of votes was 300,000 instead of 13,000.
Although 300,000 votes is a lot, they haven't change the results when these votes have been counted. Ich Troje won anyway with 35% advantage over other participants.
The situation, called a “scandal” by the Polish press, is another proof that the decision to resign voting with stationary phones was not the best decicion.