[rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS

Tue May 3 17:58:24 UTC 2016

Andrew,

It does not matter if you retract or what you believe about these candidates.  This stinks to high heaven and hardly what one expects from board members, in their personal capacities or otherwise.  This is really unfortunate.

In my view, you have tainted those who you would support with the impetuousness of your action.  You could have least waited for the NOMCOM to complete its job.  It is hard to believe that you or the other members of the board whom you name are unaware of the implications.

-Omo

> On 3 May 2016, at 18:38, Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Abel,
> 
> Yes, I advocated for candidates.  If you notice I clearly stated, I do not know who is on the slate.  I do not have a final slate.  However, I know who the candidates are that I support.  I have every right to lobby for those candidates at any point.  Just as any candidate or any other person has the right to lobby for their candidates.
> 
> I did not send that email as a board member, I sent it as a personal individual.  I stand by what I said, and I stand by those endorsements.
> 
> As for the allegations about people being paid.  That is completely false and a libellous allegation that was investigated and found to have no merit, as resolutions published will attest to.
> 
> I stand by every word I said in the below email, and I will not, and would not retract a single word of it.
> 
> Andrew
> 
> 
> From: abel ELITCHA <kmw.elitcha at gmail.com <mailto:kmw.elitcha at gmail.com>>
> Date: Tuesday, 3 May 2016 at 8:33 PM
> To: "AfriNIC RPD MList." <rpd at afrinic.net <mailto:rpd at afrinic.net>>
> Subject: [rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS
> 
> Hi
> 
> I got to see the mail below from a board member. It concerned me as i raised some importants points:
> 
> 1- While according to the election timeline (http://www.afrinic.net/en/community/elections/bod-election/process <http://www.afrinic.net/en/community/elections/bod-election/process>), the NOMCOM is evaluating the candidates and has not yet announced the slates, the  board member started the campaign to
> 
> influence the process and the vote
> 
> 2- He is pushing for a candidate from his company
> 
> 3- He issued an arbitrary judgment on the ability of the community to decide
> 
> 4- I recalled that it  is the same board member who admitted in 2014  that he influenced the elections by paying for people to come and vote for him. The disclosure of which caused two board members to resign for breaching NDA.
> 
> 
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I’m going to take a bit of an unusual step for me here, as promised in
> earlier emails, and I am now ready to officially endorse certain
> candidates for the AfriNIC elections.
> 
> I state openly that I do NOT yet know the entire slate, however, due
> to time limitations and knowing what I know about the candidates I
> refer to below, as well as at least some of the candidates running
> against them (which I have heard from those candidates running
> directly), I feel I’m in a position to take a strong and unequivocal
> stance here and am ready to state to the community at large my views
> on this.
> 
> Hence, in the next AfriNIC election, there are three seats open, one
> independent seat, one north african seat and one west african seat.
> 
> On the West African seat, I am endorsing Sunday Folayan.  Sunday is
> the current chair of the AfriNIC board, and despite many trying
> circumstances in the year and half since he has taken the chair,
> AfriNIC has made tremendous progress.  Indeed, in Pointe Noir we were
> credited with giving the community transparent information and
> financials for the first time in 10 years.  Sunday and his leadership
> played a huge part in this and his institutional knowledge and the way
> he has run the board have been critical to the improved situation we
> are starting to find ourselves in.
> 
> On the North African seat, I am endorsing Hytham Ek-Nakhal.  Hytham is
> currently the deputy chair of the board, and again, in the year since
> he took that position, he has proved very capable and also carries
> deep institutional knowledge from a prolonged tenure on the board.  I
> have found him to be fair, reasonable and willing to both have his
> views and debate the views of others in the search for a consensus
> approach.  Hence, I strongly believe that his tenure on the board
> should continue.
> 
> On the Independent seat, here I am endorsing Mike Silber, who many of
> you know.  I do not know if the current board member for this seat is
> going to be running again, but irrespective of that my endorsement
> will stand, due to specific skills I believe the AfriNIC board
> requires.  Mike has many many years in the industry, and his work with
> ICANN and within the addressing space is well documented and well
> respected.  In addition to that, Mike is legally trained and that is
> something we desperately need within AfriNIC as we look at the bylaws,
> as we move into an era where there is a governance committee, there
> are bids of control and various other issues.  It is that legal skill
> set that we are missing directly on the board (yes, we have legal
> council, but it is a very different thing to have someone who has that
> kind of legal knowledge actually sitting on the board).
> 
> I need to also point out, in the event of the board losing both Sunday
> and Hytham, and the independent seat going to a weak candidate,
> AfriNIC will be in serious trouble.  Firstly, I personally do not
> believe that the board has anyone who is anywhere close to as capable
> as Sunday or Hytham for the positions of chair and vice chair
> respectively, and whoever comes in could not take those positions no
> matter how strong, since those positions require institutional
> knowledge that comes from time served on the board.  My reasoning for
> endorsing Mike is made plain above.
> 
> As such, for those of you who are opting to issue proxies and wish to
> issue proxies to myself or via myself, this is how I will be voting.
> Those of you who are voting electronically, I encourage you when the
> slate comes out to study each and every candidate – but I am confident
> that what I have said above will ring true, and I ask every member of
> this list to get out there and use your vote, either for one of these
> candidates or otherwise one of the others when the slate comes out –
> but please, make sure you vote, either via proxy or via online or in
> person.  I cannot stress how many critical issues are going to come up
> in the next year or two, and without a strong and independent board we
> could face serious issues.
> 
> Please feel free  to address any questions to me.  As stated in
> previous emails, as soon as the proxy generation system is open, for
> those that wish to use that route, I will supply details on how to use
> it.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Andrew "
> 
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—
Omo Oaiya
CTO/Directeur Technique, WACREN
Mobile: +234 806 4522778, +221 784 305 224
Skype: kodion
http://www.wacren.net

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