[Adamw92]

Finnish fans of Saara Aalto have been able to vote for her on The X Factor 2016, it's been confirmed.

An ITV spokesperson has revealed that votes from the country have been recorded, despite it being only those in the UK who are meant to be able to vote.

However, the spokesperson also said that the votes were so few that they amounted to "well under” one per cent and there they had "not affected the outcome of any of the votes in the series".

That's not too surprising given the population of sparse Finland is around half of just London here in the UK.

Earlier this week it was reported that the singer's shock turnaround has prompted a look into voting figures to see if Finnish fans were using a 'loophole' to vote from outside the UK.

“Saara was in the bottom two early in the competition but has now gone straight to being the favourite," a source told The Sun newspaper last weekend. “Nobody is saying she hasn’t got a brilliant voice and that is why the judges have kept her in the show — because of her performances.

“But it does beg the question of how many votes from Finland are getting through when it’s just supposed to be people in this country.”

Although votes from the show's free mobile app are only meant to come from the UK, last year a method of casting votes from outside the country was revealed by fans of girl group 4th Impact.

A spokesperson for The X Factor confirmed they had looked into voting irregularities but there was no evidence of if changing the results.

"Our investigations have shown there is no evidence that the vote result is being affected by this activity, though we are continuing to monitor the situation," they said in a statement to the newspaper.

Saara's comeback has made X Factor history, going from the sing off in Week 1 to sailing through to the grand final at Wembley Arena next week.

Bookies have installed her as the favourite to win in what's shaping up to be the closest X Factor final in history.

The X Factor final airs this Saturday and Sunday night at 8PM on ITV.

Saara earning her place in the final from British votes as expected