Voting at the Internatia Song Contest
The voting systems used in the Contest have changed only once during contest run. Since 2nd edition countries award a set of points from 1 to 8, then 10 and finally 12 to other songs in the competition — with the favourite song being awarded 12 points. Due lower number of participants in 1st edition voting system was different.
Tie-breakers
In the event of a tie for first place and for other places after all the points have been announced, there is a tie-break procedure. A tie-break procedure is exactly the same used in the Eurovision Song Contest.
The current tie-breaking rule is that, in the event that two or more countries tie for first place and for other places the song that received points from the greater number of countries is the winner. This system is sometimes called the "count-back". If there is still a tie, the second tie-breaker is to count the number of countries who assigned twelve points to each entry in the tie. Tie-breaks continue with ten points, eight points, and so on until the tie is resolved.
In Internatia Song Contest history, there was no need to use tie-break procedure to determine winner of contest.
Voting status
Since 16th edition of contest, all participating nations are obligated to vote in final of particular edition, even if they fail to qualify from semi-final. Country can miss voting only in 1 out of 10 recent contests, although participating broadcaster can explain why their votes were not submitted, thus their non voting will not be counted as such.
If country fail to vote in final for second (third, fourth etc.) time in period of 10 contest, that country will be unable to participate in following edition of contest. Though exceptions are possible in individual cases.
Table key
 |
Voted - Country voted in that edition |
 |
Did not vote - Country failed to vote in that edition |
| N/A | Did not participate - country didn't participate in that edition |
