Israeli paper Ma'ariv and web portal Ynet.co.il report today that the Israeli broadcaster's (IBA) protest against the expected new voting system of the Eurovision Song Contest has reached the EBU, which now intends on having a poll to determine wether to use the new method.
According to Ma'ariv, IBA's head of entertainment had an online meeting last Friday with EBU's seniors, including Svante Stockselius, the song contest's coordinator at the EBU. This conversation resulted in a decision to hold a poll among the 36 participating countries in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest on the issue of the time period the viewers across the Europe will have to vote for the May 12th semi-final entries. (The IBA objects to the idea that this period will begin on May 12th evening and last until May 15th at noon, as the EBU proposed). According to Ynet.co.il, other broadcasters who joined the Israeli one in it's protest were the ones from the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.
'To be more accurate, we never threatened to withdraw from the 2004 contest. We only stated that should the proposed new system come into effect, we would consider our participation', said Yitzhak Sonnenshein, head of entertainment at the IBA and of the delegation to Eurovision. 'We were pleased to find out that other countries supported our request, that the 10 qualifying countries will be revealed the same night of the semi-final. This poll is expected to be executed in the coming days, since the EBU is determined to have an ultimate decision by the end of this week', Sonnenshein adds.
Meanwhile, Israeli entrant, David D'Or, continues preparing to the contest with his song Leha'amin. This weekend he said on several occasions that the song is expected to be revamped as well as the stage act itself, with a new stage director and new outfits, which might be designed by Giorgio Armani himself.
