[Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] Faulty result for Western Africa in AfriNIC AGMM Elections

Timothy Ola Akinfenwa akin.akinfenwa at uniosun.edu.ng
Fri May 18 08:35:48 UTC 2018


Thanks Ashok for the clarification. However, I have an observation;


   - All open positions shall be subject to an election process even if
   there is only one candidate. In that event, *if the option [none of the
   above] got more votes than the only candidate*, then the seat shall be
   considered vacant and the Board will be requested to apply provisions of
   the Bylaws to temporarily fill the vacant seat.


>From the highlighted, this was explicitly stated and can be interpreted to
be applicable if there was *only* *one* *candidate.* This was clearly not
the case for the Western Africa seat so the [*human, visible, touchable and
real*] candidate with the highest votes should be declared winner, not
a [*virtual
and invisible*], None of the Above, IMHO.

Best!

</>Tim

On May 17, 2018 5:19 PM, "Ashok" <ashok at afrinic.net> wrote:

Dear Members and Community,
Mt views have been sought on the matter under reference.
Please find same hereunder.

On 17/05/2018 14:04, B

*The Election Process and last AGMM.*

The appointment of Directors is carried out during an AGMM of the Company
–Art 13.1 of the constitution.

The election of the Directors is carried out in terms of Art 13.2 of the
constitution which refers expressly to the election process approved by the
Board.

Moreover  Art 10.2 of the Constitution refers to precedent applied during
an AFRINIC election and which de facto become part of the election
guidelines.

The election process  as it stands today is the one which was applied during
the elections held during the last AGMM without any opposition.

This is what it provides:

*9.2 Paper Ballot on Election Day*

The voting conducted during the Annual General Members' Meeting is carried
out via paper ballots containing a list of candidate names and a ballot
number. Prior to the vote, all members present or participants holding a
proxy will be requested to register and validate their membership status.

   - Voters should only vote for one candidate per category/region. Each
         mark on a ballot paper represents one vote. A ballot with
more than one
         mark per category/region will be considered spoilt, and not
be counted.
         - The ballot paper should provide voters with the option to not
         vote for any candidate (a.k.a. "None of the Above").
         - This will be a secret ballot election. An inclusion of any
         personal data on the ballot paper will invalidate the vote and will be
         counted as spoilt.
         - Elections will be closed as soon as the last member or proxy
         present in the meeting room casts his/her vote. Candidates
with the highest
         number of votes in each category will be declared winners.
         - In the event of a tie for an open position, voting for that
         position will be repeated (Only by paper ballot) the same day
until there
         is a winner.
         - All open positions shall be subject to an election process even
         if there is only one candidate. In that event, if the option
[none of the
         above] got more votes than the only candidate, then the seat shall be
         considered vacant and the Board will be requested to apply
         provisions of the Bylaws to temporarily fill the vacant seat

The last amendment of the election guidelines introduced the voting option
“ None of the Above”. –(Vide second bullet point above.)Those voters who
have cast their votes for “ None of the Above” have done so in compliance
with the prevailing  constitution  and these are thus valid votes. Every
voter was aware of the new option.

The election guidelines are clear as to what happens when the “ None of the
Above” option has a majority.- (Vide last bullet point above.)

The election guidelines must be read as a whole and all the provisions read
together.

Legal Counsel –AFRINIC

17.05.2018
oubakar Barry wrote:

Hello Board and Legal Counsel,

Good that Omo spotted this.

It’s a matter of applying the board election process adopted by the board
according to section 13.2 of the bylaws.

https://afrinic.net/en/community/elections/bod-election/process describes
the process and section 9 spells out how to interpret the results in the
case there are more than one candidate and in the case there is only one
candidate. These two cases are addressed separately and differently.

It’s important to hear from the Board and the Legal Counsel, as the
elections can be challenged.

Please advise.

Regards.

Boubakar

On Wed, May 16, 2018 at 5:24 PM, Omo Oaiya <Omo.Oaiya at wacren.net> wrote:

> Greetings All,
>
> I am looking at the BoD election process and it seems to me that the
> recent e-mail from the Board Chair seeking nominations for vacant seats
> should not be extended to Western Africa.
>
> The particular clause I am referring to is in 9.2 -
> https://afrinic.net/en/community/elections/bod-election/process
>
>
>    -
>    Elections will be closed as soon as the last member or proxy present
>    in the meeting room casts his/her vote. Candidates with the highest number
>    of votes in each category will be declared winners
>
> I see from the list for West Africa that the candidate with the highest
> number of votes should have been declared winner and this is Dr Ousmane
> Tessa.  (btw, Dr Adewale Adedokun needs his name spelt correctly)
>
>
> *Western Africa - Seat 2*
>
> Dr Adelawe Abedekon - 43
>
> Dr Ousmane Moussa Tessa - 56
>
> None of the above - 78
>
> *Result: The seat is vacant*
>
>
> The results from the other regions are valid and supported by the
> following clause as they had one candidate.
>
>
>    - All open positions shall be subject to an election process even if
>       there is only one candidate. In that event, if the option [none of the
>       above] got more votes than the only candidate, then the seat shall be
>       considered vacant and the Board will be requested to apply provisions of
>       the Bylaws to temporarily fill the vacant seat.
>
>
> Can AfriNIC and the nomcom please clarify?   We should not deprive Dr
> Tessa of a rightful win …. especially in the circumstances we find
> ourselves.
>
> Omo
>
> _______________________________________________
> Community-Discuss mailing list
> Community-Discuss at afrinic.net
> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss
>
>



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