In a dramatic development M-Net announced Sasha Lee Davids and Jason Hartman were the joint winners of Idols 2009.

The results of a vote audit were announced in Johannesburg on Friday.

The results indicated Hartman was the winner but after consideration M-Net decided the title should be shared.

The recount followed a furor over delayed SMS votes.

Davids was announced as the winner on Sunday while the man from KwaZulu Natal was announced as the runner up.

Said Patricia Scholtemeyer, CEO of M-Net: "For the first time, the voting public had 100 percent say in the outcome of the competition to decide the winner. Therefore, every vote counted and it was imperative that the votes were counted accurately.

"When M-Net realised that not all the SMS votes cast before the cut-off time at 6.05pm had been received and accounted for, we immediately began corrective action to understand fully the true situation.

"Following the recount, It turned out that there were 1.3 million votes for Jason and 1.1 million votes for Sasha Lee."

When asked if he regretted not being named the winner during the finale, Hartman said: "There is no sense of disappointment."

"This is so much more shocking, it is still much better," he added.

Davids was equally diplomatic.

"It's been a tornado, but I am happy with having two Idols," she said.

The final week's voting period ran from Monday, 27 April at 7.30pm until Sunday 3 May until 6.05pm during the final live show. When the votes had been verified after the cut-off time on Sunday evening, Davids was the winner. However, when the regular post-show internal analysis was conducted the following morning, it became apparent that an unusual amount of SMS votes that had been sent in before the 6.05pm cut-off time, had not been received and thus included in this result.

M-Net management took action and called in KPMG to independently conduct a recount and verify the actual results. As a result of this process, it has emerged that Hartman did in fact receive more votes than Davids.

"This competition is driven by the public?s vote. While we acknowledge that this was not a scenario that we had expected or wanted, we are delighted with the outcome as both Jason and Sasha Lee are true Idols. We will be following their careers closely and with great interest," concluded Scholtemeyer.

Each finalist was awarded a recording contract and prizes for both Hartman and Davids were doubled.

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Eyewitness News and Staff Reporter