Dubious The Voice SA vote tactics did involve current contestants

M-Net has confirmed the voting scandal which has hit the reality music competition did involve members of the Top 5 on The Voice SA but have refused to the name guilty parties insisting it could "influence voting in the next voting period."

The past two weeks saw favourites PJ Pretorius and Luke Lovemore get booted off‚ however‚ they have since been "invited" back onto the show after it emerged illicit paid-for marketing campaigns‚ which are against the competition's rules‚ were being used by some of the contestants.

The current Top 5 include Caroline Brussow‚ Craig Lucas‚ Fatman‚ Josh Ansley and Samantha Leonard.

M-Net said it would not be taking action against any of the contestants as it was unable to determine if misconduct did occur and if it had any impact on the votes.

The issue was brought to M-Net's attention after one of the remaining contestants wanted to "clarify the parameters of campaigning." (Awks)

There have been questions about why M-Net has been "lenient" on the guilty parties but it insists that even though an investigation by its social media monitoring‚ auditing and legal teams was conducted‚ there was still no proof of wrongdoing.

"We believed that the fairest solution under these unusual circumstances was to extend an invitation the talent who might have been affected by the boosts to return to the show‚" said M-Net's Lani Lombard.

PJ and Luke had yet to respond on whether they would return at the time of publishing this article. Should they accept the "invitation" they would then participate in the semi-finals on Sunday. However‚ voting has been shut and no one will go home.