The electoral process in Latin America had many problems and obstacles.
ICANN could not guarantee equal opportunities to all its potential voters. The sending of PINs by surface mail was a problem, and could become an even bigger problem in future elections. In Latin America, few would have faith in any election system where the right to vote depends on postal services or the capabilities of failure-prone servers.
For many people, such obstacles were clues to a larger, more difficult problem: can we find meaningfully representative systems when we are working with electoral universes of undefined character and scope?
However, none of those interviewed felt that the technical problems were due to any bad intentions or any conspiracy. The electoral process, in the view of all those interviewed, was well conducted, given the procedures that were established.
Most of those interviewed agreed that the main reason behind people becoming At-Large Members was their desire to vote for a specific candidate. This also was the main reason mentioned by several interviewees who are important stakeholders in the region.
Those interviewed were asked about possible explanations for the low rates of activation and votes. In Latin America, only 54.7% of people activated their membership, and only 21.6% of those registered actually voted.
The main reasons proposed to explain this discrepancy were:
Most of those interviewed agreed that an At-Large Membership is necessary and important for ICANN's future. Their opinions divided, however, when they were asked about the role of such a membership. Everyone agreed that At-Large Membership would be an important way to keep the community informed, and to educate people about ICANN's structure. Some felt that the membership could enable members to propose and discuss their interests, and to vote to express their positions.
Others felt that At-Large Members should have the right to participate and vote about some things, but only those matters under consideration by the Board.
About half of the people interviewed proposed to continue having direct elections, as they believed that this is the most democratic way to ensure a strong public voice in ICANN. But the other half proposed some kind of indirect election mechanisms.
Those who proposed indirect elections argued that:
Nearly all of the people interviewed agreed that any future elections should include some kind of sub-regional component. Several proposals were suggested:
Those who proposed indirect elections offered different implementation suggestions, but all of them agreed that some kind of At-Large Council should elect the At-Large Directors.
Some felt that it would be a more effective way to represent not only the current regions, but also certain sub-regions with similar cultural, geographic and political situations. Every sub-region would have representatives in one of those councils, and they would participate formally in ICANN's structure. As compared to other regions, Latin America is probably one of the more homogeneous regions, but still there are important differences among its countries. The fact that most regional discourse can occur in one of two languages (Spanish and Portuguese) facilitates intra- and inter-regional contact for Latin America, but in the Caribbean there are many small countries in which the main language is English, French or others. More (or better) integration with those countries is clearly needed.
| 2.2.4.2.2 The Election Phase and Voters | 2.2.5 North America |
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