'Nul points' from Belarus due to Eurovision computer error

According to the European Radio Broadcasting Union (UER), points from each country are given jointly by public votes and a panel of independent judges, none of which is able to vote for its own national entry.

Anecdotal evidence from each year's contest seems to point to most countries giving their neighbouring nations the most points, ranging from one to 12.

But the judges' panel in Belarus was fired just before the Eurovision was televised, as it revealed which countries were getting its votes and for how many points before these were broadcast live on the programme.

Although the public vote total has not changed, 'human error' meant the recalculation of what should have been the judges' points was upside-down.

The unusual situation of the judges' having been sacked just before the live screening meant the UER opted to take the average scores from countries bordering Belarus to calculate what the now-invalid votes ought to be.

But the system recorded these average scores backwards.

Whilst Israel was the country scoring the lowest points from the panels of judges in Belarus' nearest nations, the computer on the night gave it 12 – and Malta was the one attracting the most points from these regions, but was erroneously given the lowest score.

Spain's six points were granted in error, and when the system issue was corrected, turned out to have been awarded none at all.

But the UER says the score changes from Belarus did not have any real impact on the final classification.

Points from judges and the public in the 41 countries who vote put Spain at number 22 out of 26, and The Netherlands as the winner, both of which remain in the same slot.

The remainder of the top five is also unchanged, the UER says.