Last year, on 22nd February, the Cypriot Final ended with Annet Artani singing the winning song “Why angels cry”. Immediately afterwards seven of the remaining participants filed formal complaints to CyBC requesting clarifications on the voting process.

On12th January 2007, Dr. Eliana Nikolaou, Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Cyprus, came out with the verdict that there is a solid base for these complaints.The complainants accuse the CyBC that: a) they had not been notified of the exact way the votes would be calculated and b) the details of the final results were never revealed to them.

CyBC insists that all participants as well as the public had been notified of the exact way the televotes would be calculated through TV commercials and by the hosts of the evening as well. According to Dr Nikolaou’s report the published regulations state only that televoting would be used, without clarifying the exact process. Anyone reading it would assume that the song that gathered most votes would win the final. On the contrary, the song "After you", performed by Valanto Trifonos that actually got most votes in total came fourth in the announced results.

The Cypriot broadcaster calculated the votes the same way EBU does, meaning that each county had an equal vote regardless of their population or votes submitted. Dr Nikolaou points out in her report that this could not be possible in the first place, as ATHK, the Cypriot telephone company, could not possibly provide results by county but only by geographical area covered by their network. For example, from the Paphos and Paralimnio counties only votes from land lines were calculated in each county’s result, as the calls from cell phones were calculated in the Limassol and Larnaca counties respectively due to the telephone company coverage.

The Commissioner concludes that it is too late now to amend the situation but that this should serve as a good example for years to come.

These were the announced results of the Cypriot final last year:
Why angels cry Annet Artani 1st
Congratulations Marios Tofi 2nd
Land of yesterday Evagoras Evagorou & Chrisi Andreou 3rd
After you Valanto Trifonos 4th
Love on the weekend Andreas Konstantinidis 5th
Funky Nick Nikolaou & Viky Anastasiou 6th
Play that melody for me Eleftheria ft. Maria Zorli 7th
Every time I close my eyes Constantinos Andronikou 8th
I’m a fighter Marina Solonos 9th
Just your smile Eleni Andreou 10th