The Head of Delegation for San Marino has confirmed discussions are on-going regarding their proposal to introduce a public vote in the country.
At this mornings Meet and Greet, the Head of the San Marinese delegation updated the press regarding the countries proposal to introduce an alternate public vote in San Marino. Currently San Marino is the only country in the contest that cannot have a televote as it shares its telephone infrastructure with Italy. As a result San Marino’s public vote is decided by a combination of around 5-10 countries televotes across Europe, the countries used in this are unknown.
The Head of Delegation reiterated that they were in ongoing discussions with the European Broadcasting Union and Digame. Digame have been the voting partner for the contest since 2004, overseeing the validity of the result. Both Digame and the EBU are studying the proposal and are trying to overcome some issues with it.
The proposal put forward by San Marino RTV creates a statistically representative sample of viewers from a set number of people living in San Marino. These public ‘panel members’ would be required to watch two of the three Eurovision broadcasts and vote via the web in the same window of voting used by other European television viewers. The vote of this ‘panel’ would join that of the jury to go to form the total vote at the San Marino Eurovision Song Contest.
In case of problems or malfunctions of the simulated remote voting system, the European Broadcasting Union may then resort to an emergency vote putting the current system to use not as a primary option, but as a backup. The European Broadcasting Union and San Marino RTV have not announced any changes to the method of voting for San Marino since the proposal was announced in November.
[tw-accordion class=””] [tw-accordion-section title=”San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest”] San Marino debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 alongside Azerbaijan. On their debut they were represented by Miodio and the song “Complice”, when they finished last in their semi final with just 5 points. Following this San Marino withdrew from the contest before returning again in 2011. Since then the country has participated annually and in 2014 qualified for the grand final for the first time, when they were represented by Valentina Monetta for a third consecutive year. Her song “Maybe” went on to finish 24th in the final in Copenhagen with a total of 14 points, and is their highest-scoring entry.[/tw-accordion-section] [/tw-accordion]
