[rpd] bylaws consultation aspects that impact the PDP/community

[Mike Burns]

Hi Benson,

I believe nominating committees who can exclude candidates from the slate
present the risk of regulatory capture.
The board should not be selecting the nominating committee at all, in my
opinion. I concur with Benson's statement:

" It would be better for the board not to select the nominating committee."


Regards,
Mike Burns



-----Original Message-----
From: Benson Muite <benson_muite at emailplus.org> 
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2026 6:30 AM
To: rpd at afrinic.net
Subject: Re: [rpd] bylaws consultation aspects that impact the PDP/community




On Sun, Aug 30, 2026, at 11:15 AM, Benson Muite wrote:
> Hi Jordi,
>
> Thanks for your efforts to improve the transparency of this process by 
> making your feedback public.

It is good that there is an option to give comments semi-anonymously, but
interaction between people interested in the review, and not just with the
committee is useful for accountability and transparency.  My comments on
different clause changes:

Article 1

The definition of e-voting should be modified.  At the present time nobody
has come up with a voting system that would work over the internet that
enables a secret ballot that is secure from outside interference and can be
audited that votes are recorded as cast.  While there are efforts to create
such systems and some countries use e-voting in public legislative
elections, most countries only use these for citizens in the diaspora
because the expectation is that the likelihood of election interference
having a significant effect on election outcomes is low.  The text could be
worded as follows:

E-voting: An election system that allows a voter to record his or her ballot
electronically from any location with a known degree of security and
secrecy.

Article 3

AFRINIC should be registered in another jurisdiction for legislative
purposes.  The court process in Mauritius has proven inadequate to the task
of legislating an international body that manages internet resources for
African countries.  The highest court of appeal for Mauritius is based in
the United Kingdom, most African countries would object to this due to
sovereignity.  It would be worth examining whether AFRINIC can be registered
as a body under the African Union or some other organization/country and
have legal matters dealt with under a special court.  There is an African
Court for Human Rights, https://www.african-court.org/afchpr/ perhaps its
scope could be enlarged to also include technology issues on the African
continent.


Article 4

(b)   Before finalising any changes in fees, the Board shall consult the
Members and allow at least 90 days for comments

(c)   After the Board finalises any changes in fees, the new fees shall take
effect only from the commencement of the next financial year, provided that
Members, as appropriate, and the community have been given not less than
ninety (90) days' prior notice of the new fees.

Article 5

It would be good to clarify if the PDP process needs to be followed for
changing the registered office, or for the community to be consulted.

Article 6

The rights and responsibilities of registered and associate members should
be defined.  Do registered members have the right to vote?  What benefits
and responsibilities do associate members have?

Article 7

7.2 should perhaps be changed from:
Subject to this Constitution, Members shall be entitled:
to
Subject to this Constitution, Resource Members shall be entitled:

Article 8

Section 8.6 should be subject to independent oversight.  A PDP type process
could be followed or an independent body with knowledge of and interest in
the internet in Africa could be constituted and consulted.

Article 9

It would be better for the board not to select the nominating committee.
Having 6 members with rotation of 3 members every year would be better than
a 2 year combined term.

Random choice of nominating committee members from volunteers within AfriNIC
resource members, perhaps by sub-region may allow new people to participate
in AfriNIC.

It does not seem reasonable to not have people on the nominating committee
not be from regions where candidates are sought.  As there are members from
other regions, they are unlikely to have undue influence.  One could perhaps
indicate that they cannot participate in the nominating process for people
for seats in their region.

Will the nominating committee be required to meet in person?

Article 10

Given AfiNICs purpose, the staff may not have the required expertise to hold
an election.  If internet based elections will continue to be used some
mechanism of getting temporary external expertise should be sought to
supplement staff knowledge.  A transparent process to do this should be
followed and it should be subject to review and approval by AfriNIC resource
members, not just the board.

Article 11

Clarification is sought as to whether a special meeting is a Special General
Meeting only or can be any congregation of AfriNIC members and interested
parties.

Article 12

An authentication procedure should be specified to ensure identities of
attendees are verified.  A method based on public private key verification
is reasonable.  As ip addresses are an important part of Resource Public Key
Infrastructure, it would be useful to see this being used in AFRINIC
processes.  The designated contact for a resource member could digitally
sign a copy of an identity document of an authorized representative or
proxy.

Article 13

No director should be eligible for immediate re-election, Africa has no
shortage of people that can be grown into effective leaders. One could
consider a 4 year board member term instead.  Efforts should be made to move
the registered jurisdiction of AFRINIC outside of Mauritius.  As much of the
administrative work can be done remotely and on a part time basis, requiring
residency in a particular jurisdiction of one director reduces the pool of
eligible people.  Jurisdictions that support nominated legal company
representatives should be sought.

Article 16

It is reasonable to allow for constitution of advisory committees.  However,
this clause does not allow for independent oversight of the board.  One
could specify officers of other African technical and trade organizations as
an independent oversight committee.

Article 17

The CEO should also be subject to an approval vote by resource members.

An acting CEO should have limited powers.

Article 18

Directors other than the CEO should not receive remuneration.  An
expectation of a weekly hourly commitment should be made, and if there are
regular tasks that exceed this hourly commitment, a staff person should be
appointed to assist directors.

Travel and other expenses should be capped and the cap reviewed by resource
members.  As much work can be done online, at most two trips per year should
be reimbursed for directors.

Article 19

Board meetings can be held online.  Board members have opportunities to meet
at an AGM, but as travel within Africa can be problematic (for example due
to visas and other travel barriers), requiring travel to every board meeting
will reduce the number of people willing and able to serve on the board.

Verifying identity of board members at board meetings should be done, for
example using public key cryptography.

Will there be a person or persons responsible for managing the conflict of
interest policy?  Will there be any need for confidentiality?  If there will
be a need for confidentiality in some areas, how will this be balanced with
open governance followed in AFRINIC?

Article 23

Embed the use of digital signatures and digitally signed e-mail withing
AFRINICS operating procedures.

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