ccTLD Constituency of the DNSO
Proposed election process for ccTLD NC representatives
Dear Colleagues,
At the LA constituency meeting, George Daniel (.ag), Patrick O'Brien
(.nz) and I (.uk), "offered?"/were press-ganged? to prepare a proposal
for a new election process which would ensure that ICANN's requirement
for so-called geographic diversity was automatically met.
Apologies for taking a little longer than we would have wished to
complete this action, but we have now put together a paper for the
consideration of the constituency. I suggest that we consider this over
the next month so that we can complete the debate in Cairo - for those
able to attend. I know that CENTR and APTLD (and others?) are having
meetings before Cairo and it would be good to debate it in these fora
also. Shortly after that we could formally approve it as part of the
by-laws of the constituency and actually then put it into operation for
an election.
Some of the content is, understandably, our own views, but we've tried
to take into account comments made in LA and in other fora. There are
bits of commentary here and there and a few alternatives to be decided.
Since I do not have a lot of time to maintain this document between now
and Cairo, can I request that the Admin Committee appoint an editor and
also manage the consensus process (that's what you're there for, isn't
it?) now needed to finalise the document.
I append it in plain ASCII so that the simpler among us can cope -
apologies to the Microsoft worshippers:-) Enjoy...
Best regards
Willie Black
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Principles and Procedures
=========================
for the
Election of ccTLD Representatives to ICANN Names Council
========================================================
[Prepared by George Daniel (.ag), Patrick O'Brien (.nz), and Willie Black (.uk)]
Objectives
----------
(a) Simple - easy to understand without a major education campaign or
counting team.
(b) Equitable and fair - not open to manipulation or unduly influenced
by lobbying tactics.
(c) Open to ICANN inspection - regional representation is the issue here
[Notes: simplicity was/is where STV failed us. This meant that it was an
"unfair" system to those that lacked the knowledge.]
Principles
----------
1. One ccTLD - one vote. [Commentary by WB: Perhaps when ccTLDs have to
pay different amounts according to ability to pay, or self-selection of
fee-band, there may be calls for weighting the voting according to fee
paid. We are already seeing some call to consider this within CENTR,
although it has not been a major issue. If we go for weighted voting,
then in the process below, when we talk of a vote, we will mean the
weighted vote.]
2. All ccTLDs to vote for all seats. All ccTLDs MUST place exactly three
votes or the paper will be deemed to be spoilt. [This is to ensure that
the candidates really have the support of ALL ccTLDs.]
3. Each of the five ICANN "regions" must be represented by one candidate in
the primary election. This ensures that the 3 candidates selected meets the
ICANN geographic diversity test. [The issue of what exactly defines the
regions has been recently debated on the list. Perhaps it's just easier
to let ccTLDs self-declare what region they consider themselves to be
in. There will probably be very few real problems using this method,
although ICANN Board /GAC in their infinite wisdoms may not like this.]
4. All votes will be by secret e-mail ballot.
Process
-------
Stage 1: call for Nominations for NC by region. Each region may choose
its nominees for the regional secondary elections by whichever method it
prefers. [There are no specific qualifications required of any
candidate, except residency in that region and, obviously, support from
the ccTLDs within the region. Naturally, the candidates must be prepared
to make available sufficient time to carry out the duties. It is outside
the scope of the ccTLD to fund or otherwise support any candidate
financially, although a candidate may be funded in order to do this role
by some other interested organization.]
Stage 2: for each region independently, ccTLDs from the region vote for
their "primary" candidate. This will deliver at least 3 (depending on
the number of regions within ICANN). [Note: presently 5 regions: North
America, Latin America/Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia/Pacific.]
Stage 3: all ccTLDs vote for three representatives from the set produced
by stage 2.
Voting Method
-------------
Simple first-past-the-post for the regional secondary elections: the
candidate having the most votes gets selected for the primary. For the
primary itself, three votes are allocated to each ccTLD and the three
candidates with the highest number of votes are elected. [This is the
option recommended by us.]
[Alternative 1] Multiple rounds in each (secondary and primary)
election. In the secondaries, each ccTLD in the region gets one vote. In
the primaries, each ccTLD gets to place 3 votes. At each stage the
candidate receiving the least number of votes and any candidate failing
to receive 10% of the total votes cast is eliminated and the ballot
repeated with the remaining candidates. [Pathological case where there
are 10 or more candidates and each gets an equal share of the vote.
Perhaps the 10% should be 100 divided by the number of candidates?]
[Alternative 2] Full PR for each election. Here the candidates are
ranked in order by the voter and the well-known Electoral Reform
Society algorithm invoked.
For the secondary elections, each region may vary its own procedures,
but are strongly recommended to follow the method given below which will
apply to the primary election.
All votes will be made by e-mail to an independent teller. The
independence of the teller must be acceptable by consensus by all ccTLDs
and should be nominated by the admin council. The teller, who may be
paid a nominal fee for the service by resolution of the admin council,
will accept votes and place the result of the vote on an open web site.
Each vote will be identified by a code known only to the teller and to
the sender of the vote, to whom the teller will reply quoting the code.
The voters will then be able to identify that their votes have been
properly counted.
The teller will only accept votes from the e-mail address of the
recorded administrative contact of the ccTLD as registered in the IANA
maintained database at the time when the election is declared open. This
list will be obtained from IANA by the teller.
There will be well-defined closing date and time [specified in a
well-defined time zone]. Any vote not received by the teller by the
specified time will not be counted and the submitter so informed.
Periods of Office
-----------------
[Alternative 1] Each elected representative is appointed for one year
and fresh elections are held each year. [This might ensure a more even
turnover of regional representation - but does not guarantee it.]
[Alternative 2] The representative in the primary with the most votes is
initially elected for three years; the representative with the next
number for two years; and the representative with the lowest number for
one year. After the first election, the primary is used only to elect
one replacement representative. The process above is then modified so
that nominations, secondary and primary elections are only held from the
regions not already covered by the sitting representatives.
Vacancies between elections
---------------------------
In the event of a representative being unable to continue in post, then
action will depend on the time left until the next election.
(1) If the next election is closer than three months from the
resignation, then the admin council will appoint a temporary
representative from one of the regions not then represented by the
remaining two.
(2) If the next election is further off than three months, all regions
not then being represented by the remaining two, shall obtain
nominations and carry out secondary elections. The full consitutency
will then vote on the candidates resulting from the secondaries.
In the event that insufficient candidates are forthcoming, either for
the main elections or to fill casual vacancies, then the admin council
will appoint suitable representatives so that the three representatives
are from distinct regions.
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