If voting in ITV’s X Factor had been carried out in an election in a central African republic, the UN would be sending in observers to monitor the efficiency of future polling.
How Wales’ hot favourite Rhydian Roberts failed to win the contest against lack-lustre opponents in the weekend final will doubtless remain a mystery to fans this side of Offa’s Dyke.
Professional bad guy Simon Cowell helped to tip the balance with a naked piece of jingoism, suggesting that the contest had become England v Scotland v Wales at the last hurdle.
The cunning tactic was designed to boost his flagging group, the pallid Something or Nothing, Same Difference, or whatever they were called, by urging voters in England (pop 50m) to get behind their 'team', after the poor performances by the nation’s football side, against the Scots (pop 5m) and the Welsh (pop 3m).
Rhyd, from Sennybridge, near Brecon, is still a winner, having already being offered the part of the Phantom of the Opera in one of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End extravaganzas, amng other deals.
But how could the best singer in the competition lose out on the top prize of a £1m recording contract when his voting line appeared continuously engaged throughout the crucial period when viewers were casting their vote?
Presumably, by that reckoning, he scored the maximum number of votes possible via the phone lines.
It is only a game, after all, entertainment, not life or death.
Yet how our politicians must wish that they could engender such voter enthusiasm come election time.
There is clearly a future for armchair voting via the red button on television remotes after listening to would-be prime ministers make their case in front of a panel of expert judges, who rate their performances in Paxman-esque style.
