On the 17th of February, another Saturday during the national final season, meant that another batch of countries was broadcasting their national finals, whether it being the final where a winner is decided or certain songs progress to a later stage in the competition. One of the countries that did so was Moldova, who held their national final with Natalia winning. Despite this, there was an objection to the decision by the runner-up Valeria Pasha, who has now had her appeal rejected.
Finala Națională 2024 – The results
In case you missed it, Natalia Barbu was announced as the winner of Finala Națională 2024 in Moldova, as hence earned the right to represent the country in Malmö. However, it was a questionable win, since both Natalia Barbu and the runner-up Valeria Pasha, had both ended up with a total of 22 points.
In that case, a tie had occurred between the tow competitors and usually, a tie-breaker rule is instead introduced, in order to decide the winner. Usually, the tie-breaker in case of a tie, is given to the competitor who received most support from the televote, which was Valeria Pasha in this case, who almost received double as many votes as Natalia Barbu.
However, Natalia Barbu was still declared the winner, by having been the favorite of the jury vote.
Finala Națională 2024 – The appeal
Shortly after the final, Valeria Pasha issued an appeal and even questioned the decision of letting the jury vote being the tie-breaker, when in past years, the televote has usually been the tie-breaker.
According to TRM (Broadcaster of Moldova), all acts have the right to appeal a decision that has been made at any stage of the competition, within the first 24 hours of a decision, which Valeria Pasha did. Afterwards, the broadcaster will make a decision within 72 hours.
The decision has now been made, and the appeal was rejected by the broadcaster. Meaning, that Natalia Barbu will remain the Moldovan representative for 2024.
The broadcaster did issue a statement regarding this decision: (translated)
- By registrering for the competition, the participants confirm that they agree with the rules, present in the reglements and with all the conditions made by the organising committee.
- At any moment of the contest, TRM have the right to decide whether they wish to organize anything and/or decide in a different way of selecting the representative of The Republic of Moldova for ESC 2024.
A verification of the votes that Valeria Pasha had received was also done, and it was discovered that almost 1000 votes that were sent in, were from non-valid telephone numbers.
The votes that Valeria Pasha had received, came from 48 different countries. Among them, we have countries such as Aruba, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Indonesia and Vietnam, most likely expected with the use of a VPN.
What do #YOU think about this case and which song did #YOU prefer anyways among the two contestants?
Let’s hear from #YOU on our forum site right HERE, or visit us on Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and Discord.
Source(s): Moldova1.md (In Romanian)
