Overall, the ICANN At-Large elections proved to be a qualified success. As a "first-time" effort, and relative to the voter experience elsewhere in the world, the election can be considered to be a legitimate expression of African involvement. Further, as a result of the interest generated by the election it is clear that African At-Large members and the African Internet community do want to participate in ICANN policy formulation, and do want to vote in direct elections for ICANN Board representatives.
However, the following problems must be addressed:
Within Africa there is a general lack of awareness of ICANN, and much more is therefore needed in the areas of outreach and education if future elections are to be more inclusive and consequently legitimate. The ALM recruitment drive and outreach program did have a positive impact, but did not change the general situation appreciably. The MITF-Africa faced a general problem of apathy and lack of interest within the Africa region on all matters relating to ICANN. Very few people knew what ICANN is all about. Most people, including long-time users of the Internet had not heard of ICANN; many of the ones who had heard of it remain in the dark about its role, structure and processes.
ICANN should do more to educate the Internet community about these aspects of its mission and operation. ICANN should not use the fact that close to 160,000 people completed the ALM forms on its web site as an indication of adequate awareness on a global level. A broader global communication strategy needs to be developed. People need to know more about ICANN and the impact of its activities on the growth, usability and accessibility of the Internet. Efforts must be made to make information available in all major official languages of African countries. Relevant material with regional specificity must be developed.
There is a clear need for outreach programs in the African region to encourage and facilitate active participation in the ICANN process. People need to know more about ICANN, and efforts have to be made to make information available in all major official languages of African countries.
Specific voter education is required about the role of the ALM and the Directors elected by the ALM. Some suggested decentralization, to ensure that regional specificities are addressed before reaching any consensus on a global level.
The perceived "under-representation" of the African region will have a negative impact on the legitimacy of the ICANN At-Large process, structure and governance in the future, unless steps are taken to get more Africans involved and interested in ICANN.
Africa does have special requirements; while behind in Internet use, the Internet and related technologies have the potential to impact Africa more than anywhere else in the world. As such, Africa needs representation in all of the various ICANN bodies.
Most people regard the self-nomination process as fair and transparent. But there was some disagreement on the degree of fairness and the transparency of the procedure used by ICANN's Nominating Committee to nominate the two candidates for the African region. An option for the future is therefore to only have self-nominations. This will also reduce the complexity of the process.
In addition to At-Large Directors, an At-Large Advisory Committee may be regarded as one of the most appropriate "representational models" to ensure public representation and participation within the ICANN structure.
If the authentication process continues to utilize traditional paper-based mail, then more time must be allowed for letters to arrive at their African destinations.
The Web-based online registration and voting procedure is not appropriate for regions like Africa, with poor Internet connectivity and high "out-of-pocket cost" for the average subscriber linking to the Web.
Since few people participated in the online candidate forum for one reason or another, this apparent lack of interest does not help awareness, given that the candidates were little known outside their countries. ICANN should assist in various ways to make the online dialogue phase-which facilitates interaction with the candidates during the campaign process-more instantaneous, through chat sessions or other ways, as well as the use of e-mail and Web-based methods.
Many people did not understand the rules and procedures governing the election process, including membership application, membership activation to qualify for voting, and the voting process itself. The step for activation was particularly troubling and deemed unnecessary. Therefore, the election process must be simplified.
With specific regard to membership activation, one respondent usefully suggested that: "... It may be a better idea to try and allow people to receive an e-mail with an activation code. Could help with the slow snail mail problem. This does not necessarily have to be a totally automated process. It could be done where the information is verified by computer and then put in a waiting queue for human verification and then the code could be allocated. The other [possibility] may be to have an e-mail ballot system as well. ..."
However, it is recognized that this proposal must be examined closely, in order to eliminate potential fraud and authentication problems.
| 2.2.1.3.4 Comments on the Election process | 2.2.2.1.1 Internet use |
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