Board of Directors (BoD) Election Process and Guidelines (2020 - AC)

Current process updated on 2020/08/05 (AC)	Archived Board Election Process
	2020-BC  | 2018 | 2014

 

1) Introduction

Notwithstanding the provisions of any other existing election process applicable to all elections held by AFRINIC, the contents hereof, duly approved by AFRINIC Board of Directors (“the Board”) pursuant to Article 13.2 of the AFRINIC Bylaws (“the Bylaws”) on 4 August 2020 shall exceptionally, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, apply to ALL elections being held by AFRINIC for the year 2020.

Further and unless otherwise expressly stated herein, the newly applicable election process shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to any other elections being held during the year 2020 that follows the same process as Board elections.

 

2) The Committees responsible for AFRINIC elections

There are two main organs in the holding of an AFRINIC election, namely:

• Nomination Committee (also known as NomCom)
• Election Committee (also known as E-Com)

 

2.1) Nomination Committee

Responsibilities of the NomCom are defined in Article 9 of the Bylaws and include the following:

Report to the Board and follow the guidelines set by the Board; Call for candidates for all elections held by AFRINIC; Prescribe criteria and qualifications for eligibility to stand for election; Interview candidates, if appropriate, prior to finalising the list of candidates; Finalise the list of candidates for every election; Supervise the conduct of the polls by the Election Committee on election day.

2.2) Election Committee

The Election Committee, in line with Article 10 of the Bylaws, is responsible for the handling of all elections held during the entire calendar year.

 

3) Announcement of candidates and public comment period

Pursuant to Article 9.3(ii)(d) of the Bylaws, the NomCom has the responsibility to “finalise the list of candidates for any election held by AFRINIC”.

Thereafter, the Chairperson of the NomCom announces the final list of candidates, and information about the public comment period, via email to:

• This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Any other mailing list that is particularly relevant to the election in question (if not a Board election)

In the case of Board elections, the Chief Executive Officer will arrange for the announcement to be sent to the registered voting contact of each AFRINIC member.

Regarding the public comment period, the same is opened from the time the candidates’ list is finalised and runs until the day before the election day.

For the purposes of the above, AFRINIC will put in place a commenting system, i.e. an online platform, that will display each candidate’s name and other relevant information that the candidate has consented to be published and allows the community to submit comments about the candidates.

Whilst a commenting platform is a 24/7 medium; AFRINIC moderation capabilities are not. As such, we may not see every inappropriate comment right away, and we are trusting our community to act responsibly and exercise restraint to allow the comment review process to run its course.

Furthermore, AFRINIC does not agree with, endorse or condone every comment that individuals post on our commenting platform. AFRINIC, therefore, reserves the right to review comments after publishing and remove any comment that it considers to be a hate speech as defined as speech that attacks, threatens, or insults a person or group on the basis of national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability; defamatory; insulting; or simply inappropriate.

 

4) Withdrawal

A nominee or candidate may withdraw his/her nomination by notifying the Chairperson of the NomCom at least 7 days before the start of the electronic voting period. The withdrawal notification must be submitted by either the nominator or the candidate. In any case, both the nominee and the candidate must be informed to verify and confirm the withdrawal before it can be formally accepted.

If a withdrawal is received too late, then the candidate will nevertheless appear on the ballot, but any votes for the candidate will be ignored when determining the winner of the election.

 

5) Voting

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, AFRINIC Community Meetings, including the AGMM and the Public Policy Meeting (i.e. AIS 20), will be held online. Consequently, eligible voters will, either in person or by proxy (wherever applicable), be able to cast their vote through the electronic voting platform to be made available by the Election Committee.

5.1. Eligibility to vote

The eligibility to vote for each election being held by AFRINIC differs.

5.1.a Board & Governance Committee elections

Only organisations and persons that meet the following criteria are able to vote:

• Any AFRINIC Resource Member in good standing.
• All Registered Members.

A Resource member who is not a natural person may be represented by a person who is a
‘registered contact’ for that organisation. This representation does not require a proxy. In addition, the following criteria apply to votes cast by candidates:

• A candidate can carry the votes of the Resources Members they formally represent, having been registered as one of the organisation's ‘registered contact’. The MyAFRINIC portal will be the source of membership status for all eligible voters.
• A candidate without a valid membership status cannot vote.

5.1.b PDP Co-Chairs election

The following criteria shall apply to eligible voters for the PDP Co-Chair election:

1. The intended registrant must have completed an online registration;
2. The intended registrant must have been on the Resource Policy Discussion mailing list (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for at least 6 months immediately prior to his/her online registration for the meeting.

5.1.c NRO ASO AC election

The following criteria shall apply to eligible voters for the NRO ASO-AC election:

1. The intended registrant must have completed an online registration;
2. The intended registrant must have been on the Resource Policy Discussion mailing list (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or the Community-Discuss mailing list (community- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for at least 6 months immediately prior to his/her online registration for the meeting;
3. Registered contacts of AFRINIC Resource Members as recorded on MyAfrinic, as well as associated and registered members, will also have the right to vote.

 

5.2. Proxies

The right to appoint a proxy also differs from election to election.

While an eligible member has the right to appoint a proxy for both the Board and Governance Committee elections, such right, however, does not extend to the PDP Co-Chairs and ASO AC elections.

Eligible members wishing to appoint a proxy should, therefore, complete and submit the proxy form, accessible from the member's profile within the MyAFRINIC portal, not later than 5 days before the election date. Access will be allowed at the same time as electronic voting opens.

It is important to note that when a proxy is issued, the relevant member loses his/its ability to cast an electronic vote.

No member entitled to vote shall carry more than 5 proxies during the said election (Article 12.12 (viii) of the Bylaws refers). Historically, this has been interpreted to mean that a person may vote on behalf of any number of members for which the person is a registered contact (where no proxy is required), but a person may not carry more than 5 proxies.

Further, no Candidate to the election of Director of the Company shall act as a proxy for any member during such an election (Article 12.12(ix) of the Bylaws refers).

 

5.3. Electronic Voting

5.3.a Board & Governance Committee elections

An electronic voting platform will be accessible to members in good standing only during the election period.

The following shall apply:

1. The electronic voting platform will provide for e-voting ballots.
2. Starts at least 14 days before the AGMM date and ends on the Election Date (i.e.the Election Period).
3. “Trustees” that are set up to unlock and tally the e-vote system shall consist of the AFRINIC’s Chief Executive Officer, the Chairperson of the NomCom, and the AFRINIC’s Legal Counsel.
4. E-votes are tallied using the e-voting tallying system.
5. Results are signed by the trustees.

5.3.b PDP Co-Chairs & NRO ASO AC elections

An electronic voting platform will be accessible to successful registrants only. The following shall also apply:

1. The electronic voting platform will provide for e-voting ballots.
2. Starts at least 3 days before and ends on the Election Date (i.e. the Election Period for both the PDP Co-Chairs and ASO-AC elections).
3. “Trustees” that are set up to unlock and tally the e-vote system shall consist of the AFRINIC’s Chief Executive Officer, the Chairperson of the NomCom, and the AFRINIC’s Legal Counsel.
4. E-votes are tallied using the e-voting tallying system.
5. Results are signed by the trustees.

 

5.6. Counting of votes and determination of winners

A representative of the NomCom and members of the Election Committee will cause the counting as well as the tallying, as the case may be, of all the votes received.

All abstentions will be recorded while tallying and announced accordingly.

In the event of a tie for an open seat, voting for that seat will be repeated until there is a winner. For each seat, the candidate who receives the most votes shall be declared as the winner.

All disputes arising out of the election shall be resolved in terms of Article 10.2 of the Bylaws.

 

6) Announcement of result

The Chairperson of the NomCom will announce the election results.

The Chief Executive Officer will communicate the final results by email not more than 48 hours after the election to:

• This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The election results shall be simultaneously published on the AFRINIC website.

 

7) Election timeline

 

The following is the election timeline for the year 2020
Days to Election	Activity Date	Activity
88	23 Jun 2020	Send Nomination Information to AFRINIC Staff for publication
86	25 Jun 2020	Publication of Nomination Information
86	25 Jun 2020	Open Candidate Nomination Period
56	25 Jul 2020	Close Candidate Nomination Period
54	27 Jul 2020	Send Received Nominations to Board for Approval
52	29 Jul 2020	Board Review & Transmittance of Approved Nominations to NomCOM
50	31 Jul 2020	Start Review period of (Board Approved) Nominations
40	10 Aug 2020	The end Review period of nominations
39	11 Aug 2020	Prepare and send final candidate slate to Board for "Review" and "Non-binding advice"
37	13 Aug 2020	Board-reviewed slate sent back to NomCom
36	14 Aug 2020	Prepare and send final candidate slate to staff for publication
34	16 Aug 2020	Staff Publication of final candidate Slate & candidate information comment pages
30	20 Aug 2020	Announcement of Final candidate slate & opening of the public comments period
30	24 Aug 2020	Opening of registration for PDP and NRO ASO AC elections
14	05 Sept 2020	Prepare and Publish Announcement for AGMM notice (with final slate & expiring seats)
14	05 Sept 2020	Open e-voting and proxy registration
12	06 Sept 2020	Closing of registration for PDP and NRO ASO AC elections
6	12 Sept 2020	Close of proxy registration & appointment[5 clear days before Election day Board and GovCom]
4	14 Sept 2020	The election period for PDP, NRO-ASO AC will start from 14-Sept-20 and close on the election day being 16-Sep-20 at such time to be communicated during the meeting.
2	16 Sept 2020	Election day for PDP Co-Chair & NRO-ASO AC
0	18 Sept 2020	Election day for Board and GovCom, Close of electronic voting

 

8) Miscellaneous provisions

1. AFRINIC reserves the right to cause the identity of all intended registrants to its meetings to be verified.
2. The provisions of AFRINIC Bylaws shall apply in those situations not expressly covered by the present Election Process.
3. The Board reserves the rights to review the present Election Process, as well as any other related guidelines, at any time and in line with the established practice.
4. AFRINIC hereby reminds its members, the community as well as any intended participant to its meetings of the provisions of its privacy policy which may be accessed from the following link - https://afrinic.net/privacy
5. Where, for the purposes of an election being held by AFRINIC, the portal of a third-party service provider is being used, AFRINIC members and the community will be informed accordingly and attention of both the latter will be drawn to the relevant service provider's privacy policy so as to ensure compliance with the laws relating to data protection.