election controversy? - Re: Handover to new PDWG co-chairs [AfriNIC-rpd]

[Mark Elkins]

On Thu, 2011-06-16 at 01:23 +0400, Kris Seeburn wrote:
> general question here is that : Are we talking about "vice de
> procedures" or in english "procedural error" ? Sorry people i was not
> at the elections but am trying to undedstand. 
> 
> Perhaps "ashok" can give his legal opinion on this situation despite
> the fact that the election has been done. Although from what i am
> understanding....a general question arise : are we questioning the
> election of the two candidates or are we questioning the mandate that
> was allotted to the two persons?

I am the Board representative on NomCom. As the floor started to
agitate, I asked the question...

        We have two people standing for two places - is there a problem
        with these two people for these two places? Show of hands if
        there is a problem.

No one raised their hand.
This removed my concern that the community would refute the candidates.

Remember, this was after the video from McTim had already been shown
where he expressed a desire to only run for one year. We also had no
indication that Paulos was not going to show.

The mistake NomCom made was then immediately displaying a slide giving
Paulos two years and McTim one year - rather than first asking the
community if we could observe McTim's request for a one year mandate. It
would have been dumb to force McTim to serve two years and Paulos to
serve one year - but the community felt left out. They had come for an
election and were not getting one.

So the issue was how the mandates were allotted without any audience
participation - even if it was somewhat a forgone conclusion. 

ie what Seun Ojedeji has to say is pretty much correct.

McTim was listening on-line - we were also chatting on Skype - ie - he
was participating as much as he could without actually being present.

Learn the lesson and lets move on.

> Kris Seeburn
> 
> On Jun 15, 2011, at 11:05 PM, sm+afrinic at elandsys.com wrote:
> 
> > At 07:57 AM 6/15/2011, gift wrote:
> >> Nomcom is not sure how the issue of the election has come up during the hand over process.
> > 
> > Dr Paulos asked about the legitimacy of the PDWG Co-chairs.  I congratulated
> > Dr Paulos B Nyirenda and Tim McGinnis on their election previously ( https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2011/001688.html ).  I have also mentioned that I do not have any issue with the appointment of the two new PDWG co-chairs ( https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2011/001772.html ).
> > 
> >> However, since this issue has been brought up publicly, in the spirit of transparency, we will endeavor to comment so that the record is placed straight and also to give an official version of what transpired to the incoming PDWG Co Chairs and other members who were not at AfriNIC 14. There are no legitimacy issues arising from the election as a
> > 
> > As Tim McGinnis was participating remotely, he probably knows what happened during the PDWG election part of the open public policy meeting.  Trevor Mwangi raised an interesting point about remote participants registering their protest ( https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2011/001782.html ).
> > 
> >> final poll was carried without any dissension. It is also incorrect for S. Moonesamy to suggest that members were denied their voice at the meeting:
> >> 
> >> "I hope that any future NomCom will respond to community
> >> feedback instead of ignoring objections from the floor."
> > 
> > The quoted text does not include any suggestion that "members were denied their voice at the meeting".
> > 
> >> concerned there are no outstanding issues relating to the concluded PDWG Co Chair elections as was witnessed during the meeting hence the formal announcement by the ACEO. The job of Nomcom is to work with the membership to deliver a democratic election and in the process to deal with any arising challenges. In the end a member's verdict was delivered. We should also accept that what transpired at the elections is a learning opportunity to further deepen the community's democratic and corporate governance systems. Nomcom will accordingly be making the necessary recommendations in its report on the elections.
> > 
> > There isn't any "membership" for the PDWG.  "It is expected that the NomCom will oversee all open elections conducted by AfriNIC during a given year, namely Board Seats, Policy Working Group Chairs and NRO-NC representatives".  "A democratic election" is not about displaying the list of candidates on a slide and announcing the results within a few seconds on the next slide ( http://meeting.afrinic.net/afrinic-14/images/stories/af14_slides/Day%201/Gift%20Shava%20-%20PDWG%20co-chairs%20election.pdf ).  Fortunately, participants came to the microphone and objected to that.
> > 
> > I don't think that the community has a need for a "democratic and corporate governance system".  If Frank and Andrew can agree on whether questions are constructive ( https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2011/001781.html ), Sunday Folayan can walk to the microphone and have his objections taken into account, Graham Beneke and Trevor Mwangi can ask questions without being present at the meeting, J. Walubengo and Mark Elkins can come to the microphone like any other participant, it is left to the community to appreciate whether it is an open and fair process where people can discuss and reach consensus.
> > 
> > It is up to the community to determine whether the message posted at https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2011/001791.html written by Gift Shava, Arbogast Fabian and Hago Dafalla is a fair representation of the events.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > S. Moonesamy 
> > _______________________________________________
> > rpd mailing list
> > rpd at afrinic.net
> > https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpd
> _______________________________________________
> rpd mailing list
> rpd at afrinic.net
> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpd

-- 
  .  .     ___. .__      Posix Systems - Sth Africa
 /| /|       / /__       mje at posix.co.za  -  Mark J Elkins, Cisco CCIE
/ |/ |ARK \_/ /__ LKINS  Tel: +27 12 807 0590  Cell: +27 82 601 0496

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 4490 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/attachments/20110616/5c268bad/attachment.bin>