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Dear Dr. P. Nyirenda, Mr. S. Moonesamy and All colleagues<br>
<br>
Nomcom is not sure how the issue of the election has come up during
the hand over process.<br>
<br>
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 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: <br>
<pre>"<font color="#000000">I hope that any future NomCom will respond to community
feedback instead of ignoring objections from the floor."</font>
</pre>
There was certainly lively participation from members during the
elections with some standing up to speak more than two times. The
original position of Nomcom was that since there were two positions
and two candidates, with one candidate specifically offering
themselves for the one year term, and the other candidate not
expressing any reservations on the two year term, then the situation
had resolved itself and there was therefore "a no contest". Both
nominations were perfectly valid and met the criteria. Both
candidates were not able to attend but one of them sent a video
presentation. The candidate specifically indicated in the video
played at the meeting that he was offering himself for a one year
term only thereby waiving any interest whatsoever in the two year
term. Nomcom was of the considered view that since these are
voluntary positions, it would be improper to compel or consider the
member who had requested a one year term for a two year term.There
were no comments on the candidates either positive or negative
raised from the floor. Technically speaking the position taken by
Nomcom was not wrong at all as this is the most common way of
concluding a poll which turns out to be a no contest, a simple
declaration suffices. The outcome did not predijuce and neither did
it favour any of the candidates. There mere fact that there were
two/few candidates volunteering or nominated for the positions is a
reflection of the community's democratic choices and screening
processes. Nomcom also had the backing of legal opinion as expressed
by the Legal Counsel at the meeting. Nevertheless, Nomcom so good
reason in deferring to the wishes of the members who in any case
have the final say. In the ensuing discussions, a good number of
members at the meeting did not agree with Nomcom arguing that the
committee had failed to give the members their right to vote and to
allocate the terms to the Co Chairs. After listening to all the
issues raised the matter was put back to the members to determine
the way forward and it was agreed to take a vote by show of hands,
in essence to ratify the position previously put forward by Nomcom.
A call was also made for those opposing the motion or with contrary
views to equally raise their hands and there was no dissension. The
Chair then rightly declared the vote carried and declared the Co
Chairs duly elected. However, after a momentary lapse, a member
stood up to speak on the subject of the just concluded election and
was ruled out of order by the Chair. In fact, speeches from the
floor had long been stopped prior to taking the vote and the member
in question had already participated in the discussion. We monitored
the reaction of the meeting and the member clearly did not have any
further visible support from the meeting and thus the matter was
democratically concluded.<br>
<br>
A lot of the issues raised by the members were just options and
alternatives to reach an election result and not the necessarily the
rule and yet a lot more were personal opinions and preferences. As
far as Nomcom is 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.<br>
<br>
We hope the above summary helps clarify the matter. As Nomcom has
concluded its mandate on the PDWG Co Chair elections, we suggest
that any further issues are likely to be operational should
henceforth be addressed to the Secretariat and the board.<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
<br>
Gift Shava<br>
Chairperson<br>
For and on behalf of Nomcom2011<br>
<br>
On 2011/06/14 12:49 AM, Dr Paulos Nyirenda wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:20110613224016.M52926@sdnp.org.mw" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
Mmmmm ... does this mean that there was an PDWG election controversy that may affect the
legitimacy of the PDWG Co-chairs?
Did the NOMCOM mess up?
Any details or explanation on this as raised by SM would help the co-chairs understand
the environment that they will be working in.
Regards,
Paulos
======================
Dr Paulos B Nyirenda
NIC.MW & .mw ccTLD
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.registrar.mw">http://www.registrar.mw</a>
On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:55:03 -0700, sm+afrinic wrote
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011
From: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:sm+afrinic@elandsys.com">sm+afrinic@elandsys.com</a>
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rpd@afrinic.net">rpd@afrinic.net</a>
Subject: [AfriNIC-rpd] Handover to new PDWG co-chairs
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hello,
First of all, I would like to mention that I do not have any issue
with the appointment of the two new PDWG co-chairs. I understand
that NomCom faces a difficult task.
There were only two nominations for the two seats of PDWG
co-chairs. There has been such a case previously and formal
elections were organised to determine the candidates' term. That is
also stated in the Election process:
"The candidate with the highest number of votes shall win a two year term
and the second highest number of votes shall win the one year term."
The controversy during the last public policy meeting could have been
avoided if NomCom gave the community a choice instead of taking the
community by surprise in announcing the election results immediately
after providing the list of candidates. A few meetings ago, I
mentioned that the lack of formal elections does not affect the
outcome as there is rarely more candidates than open seats. The
community had the option to accept of reject the two nominations last
year. I hope that any future NomCom will respond to community
feedback instead of ignoring objections from the floor.
There was strong participation during the last meeting. I note that
Graham took the time to participate remotely. I hope that there will
be more remote participation in future.
Some people have commented on the participation of the co-chairs in
the discussions about the proposals. The co-chairs can ask questions
in an individual capacity. As you may have noticed, these persons
come to the microphone line on the floor and wait for their turn like
any other individual when they comment about a proposal.
I would like to thank Andrew Alston for making use of Section 5.1 of the PDP.
It is suggested that the new PDWG co-chairs follow up on Section 5.2
of the PDP.
Section 5.3 of the PDP is applicable for the following proposals:
AFPUB-2010-v4-005-draft-04
AFPUB-2011-v4-004-draft-01
Section 5.5 of the PDP states that:
"The adoption and implementation date of the policy is announced
on the Resource Policy Discussion mailing list. The implementation
date should be less than six months after the end of the Last Call
unless a waiver is requested."
That section is applicable for one proposal that gained consensus (
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2011/001483.html">https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2011/001483.html</a> ). Please
note that the clock starts at the end of the Last Call and not when
the proposal is ratified to become a policy.
During the last term, the PDP, except for sections 5.5, 6 and 7, have
been tested and that is documented through this mailing list. I have
avoided setting any procedure that may constrain future co-chairs. I
leave it to the co-chairs to determine how the PDP should be
implemented as mentioned in Section 3.2 of the PDP.
At the last meeting somebody asked for a french version of the RPD
mailing list so that French speakers can participate. I suggest
getting a list of people who are interested in such discussions and
asking AfriNIC to host that mailing list.
I would like to thank Mukom Akong Tamon, who was the Policy Liaison,
and Ernest Byaruhanga.
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
_______________________________________________
rpd mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rpd@afrinic.net">rpd@afrinic.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpd">https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/rpd</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
Paulos
==============================
Dr Paulos Nyirenda
Malawi SDNP Coodinator
----------------------------------------------------------
Malawi SDNP Webmail: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sdnp.org.mw">http://www.sdnp.org.mw</a>
Access your Malawi SDNP e-mail from anywhere in the world.
----------------------------------------------------------
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Gift Shava
Financial Controller
Information Technology Integrators
www. itibots.com <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://itibots.com"><http://itibots.com></a>
Office: +26739334779, Mobile: +26772115870
Fax: +2673170457
</pre>
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