2.3. Concluding Comparative Themes

The At-Large Election was an unprecedented experiment conducted via the Internet at a global level. The reports above describe several (cross-) regional concerns but they also indicate a "skeptical satisfaction" with the At-Large Election across the regions. The 2000 Election was generally seen as a first positive step towards public participation within ICANN. The distinct regional experiences described in the reports offer important clues about the nature of the 2000 election, and provide insights for future efforts at public representation. Among the main interim themes:

• Legitimate outcome despite challenging electoral process. Concerns about and challenges with the electoral process (whether the electorate had the capacity and interest in ICANN; about the election's vulnerability to capture, or the possibility of widespread fraud) do not seem to have affected views on the election's final outcome. While concerns have been raised about future elections, there has been no visible challenge to the seating of these five election winners. The electorate generally considers the five elected directors to legitimate representatives on the ICANN Board.
• Diverse electoral traditions and cultural values determined electoral behavior. Sharp distinctions in Internet users' past experiences with local election systems and cultural values led to important differences in the way the election proceeded in different regions. In the Asia/Australia/Pacific region, for example, a different election tradition led to voter registration campaigns that struck some (particularly Western) observers as inappropriate. In the Latin America/Caribbean region as well, one nation dominated the election to such extent that some called for a new concept beside the preferential voting system.
• Limited voter resources created electoral deficit. While ICANN's centralized voter support through members.icann.org was fairly useful to voters in certain regions, voters elsewhere, particularly in developing parts of the world or from language areas using non-Roman alphabets, were frustrated by bandwidth, connectivity, and speed assumptions that were unrealistic in their circumstances. At the same time, elements of the election such as the postal return system seem to have disproportionately affected users in developing parts of the world. And the "Web-only" character of the election proved a significant obstacle to participation by would-be voters in developing parts of the world.
• Outreach deficit led to over- or under-representation of nations. Across and within regions, outreach and voter education were spread disproportionately, which led to subsequent over- or under- representation of countries in the elections. The media and user-group campaign in Germany is credited with generating the extraordinarily high level of registration that enabled Germany to exceed the total registrations of all the other countries in the region combined. Active recruitment and outreach by JIF in Japan was similarly successful on a national level. Both examples raised concerns at a regional level. In contrast, areas with little outreach or no voter education had significantly lower registration and were consequently under-represented in the election. A broader and more inclusive communication strategy is needed to help equalize participation.
• Concern about suitability of regional and electoral boundaries. While some geographic boundaries for the 2000 election were basically homogenous and, as a result, uncontroversial, users in more heterogeneous regions sometimes felt underrepresented by the five-region model. Some propose increasing the number of regions used by ICANN; others advocate a two-layer election system to resolve the problem. In addition, the appropriateness of locality as the primary segmentation criterion for representation - as opposed to interest- or issue-based criteria - has been questioned. Hence, a mapping of the electoral boundaries based upon other criteria was proposed to increase inclusiveness and representation.
• Persistence of nationalistic and geo-political tendencies. Even given ICANN's global mission, voting in many regions seems to have divided along nationalistic lines. And while this may be an unavoidable result of the democratic process, several aspects of the 2000 election - most particularly the regional voting system and ICANN's decentralized outreach strategy - depended heavily on the emergence of transnational voting patterns. While such patterns may emerge in time, they may not do so unaided.

Similarly, global elections such as the 2000 At-Large elections unavoidably reflect global geo-political and societal tensions. The digital and economic divide between developing and developed regions; nationalistic competition among states in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere; the absence of Africa in the international governance debate; the complexity of ethnic, political and ideological diversity between states in one region; the unequal transition to a rule of law and democratic regime worldwide; growing political apathy among the electorate; all were contextual variables during the At-Large election that influenced the process and outcome substantially. An increased sensitivity and awareness of global geo-political impediments - such as language, technological development, and regional competition - will be necessary to improve the process.

© 2001 NAISProject.org
Privacy Policy
webmaster@naisproject.org