Maltacom plc announced that contrary to certain beliefs, the company has not received complaints concerning congestion of telephone lines on its system during the Malta Song for Europe Festival voting process.
In a press release, Maltacom explained that the fact that an agreement reached with the two mobile operators, go mobile and Vodafone, gave subscribers from both companies voting access on Maltacom fixed lines. However, if problems occurred to the telephone systems of either one of the mobile companies that held up calls from going through to Maltacom’s system, this was entirely beyond Maltacom’s control.
The company continued that during the ten minutes allocated to televoting, Maltacom registered 7551 telephone calls from go mobile subscribers and 2423 calls from Vodafone clients. Out of a total of 61947 votes, 56.66 per cent of these total valid votes were registered through Maltacom.
In the case where clients’ first call was unsuccessful, they were able to register their votes within a few minutes. In fact all Maltacom clients succeeded in registering their votes up to the end of the 10-minute slot allocated to televoting.
Maltacom stressed that the time allocated for televoting is decided by the Organising Committee of the Festival and not by Maltacom.
The telephony company said that it acts on the instructions given to the company by the Festival Organisation Committee following agreement signed between the two parties. As witnessed by the two representatives, one from Maltasong and another representative of EUCAM, Maltacom telephone lines were opened and closed to the public upon the signal from the Organizing Committee. No calls could have gone through before or after this televoting time slot.
The controversy regarding this year’s televoting process has been going on for the past few days. Many critisised the way in which it was done and others complained about the short time given to vote, which was only 10 minutes. There were also complaints regarding the fact that many voted through sms, however it was in vain due to congestion.
See also:
Controversy the day after Malta Song for Europe final
By Alexia Conti - Feb 5, 2006, 19:40 CET
One can also visit Toni Sant's Blog.
Meanwhile, Echoes of Gaia performed by Maltese singers Charlene and Natasha during the Malta Song for Europe 2006, was chosen as the winner by a back-up jury.
escmalta.com reported that this was revealed during a meeting between the Malta Song board and the singers, composers and authors. It was stated that the back-up jury vote was aimed to replace the televoting results in case the latter collapse.
Following the televoting problems, several persons wished that the back-up jury results will at the end count, was also explained. The back-up jury vote would have changed the entire results. In fact only the song performed by Trilogy would have kept the same position as in the televoting results. This year’s winner, Fabrizio Faniello with his song I Do was placed ninth in the back-up jury classification.
The results of the back-up jury are as follows:
1. Charlene & Natasha - Echoes of Gaia 60pts
2. Eleanor Cassar - Tell Me 52pts
3. Trilogy - This Heart of Mine 49pts
4. Pamela - Reachin' Out 44pts
5. Olivia Lewis - Spare A Moment 42pts
6. J. Anvil - You Too 39pts
7. Ali & Lis - Only Till The Morning 32pts
8. Paul & Morena – Time 32pts
9. Fabrizio Faniello - I Do 26pts
10. AnnaBelle – Amazing 26pts
11. Manuel - I Promise You 24pts
12. Lara Azzopardi - Stay With Me 22pts
13. Nadine Axisa – Waves 20pts
14. Christian Arding – Stronger 19pts
15. Claudia Faniello - High Alert! 17pts
16. Andreana - So Good 14pts
17. Kevin Borg - You're My Dream 06pts
18. Josef & Amanda - It Just Comes Natural 05pts
For more detailed information about Malta's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.
