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Guidelines ccNSO Council Election Procedure

Last Updated:

Guidelines ccNSO Council Election Procedure

Version 1.0

Adopted by the ccNSO Council on 25 June 2008

1. Summary

The ccNSO Council shall appoint the Election Manager and establish the time line for nomination and election of ccNSO Councillors by members, no later than 1 August of each year.

Only ccNSO members will be eligible to nominate or second candidates for the Council. Nominations may only be made by members from the region and seconded by another member from the region.

If more than one candidate have been nominated in a Geographical Region, an e-mail election shall be conducted among the members in that region. Voting will be by secret e-mail ballot, that is, the ballot is identified only by a code and not by a name.

The nomination and e-mail election process will be supervised by an Election Manager and who will also announce the outcome.

2. Introduction

At the 26 June 2003 ICANN Board adopted the amendments to the bylaws under resolution 03.106.

With regard to the membership of the ccNSO Council the bylaws state:

Article IX - section 3.1:

"The ccNSO Council shall consist of (a) three ccNSO Council members selected by the ccNSO members within each of ICANN's Geographic Regions in the manner described in Section 4(7) through (9) of this Article; (b) three ccNSO Council members selected by the ICANN Nominating Committee; (c) liaisons as described in paragraph 2 of this Section; and (iv) observers as described in paragraph 3 of this Section."

3. Timeline

In accordance with Article IX section 4.7 the ccNSO Council shall establish a time line and schedule for nomination, and if needed, election of ccNSO Council members. The time line needs to be established at least 90 days before the end of the regular term of a Council member (which is at the end ICANN's annual meeting). Assuming Annual Meetings of ICANN are held late October, early November (see ICANN calendar) the following time line is foreseen for the appointment of ccNSO Council members by the ccNSO members:

  • June meeting ccNSO Council, appointment of Election Manager and establishes timeline for the upcoming nomination.

Nomination Process

  • Late August, early September: Call for Nomination ccNSO Council;
  • Date to call for Nominations is deadline for ccTLD manager to apply for ccNSO membership so as to be able to nominate candidates;
  • Date for call for nominations + 5 weeks and 6 days all membership applications should be considered by the ccNSO Council, to enable new members to participate in nomination process;
  • Date for Call for Nominations + 3 weeks deadline to nominate and second candidates;
  • Date for Call for Nominations + 4 weeks deadline for candidates to accept nomination

Election Process, if needed.

In the event two or more candidates from the same ICANN Geographical Region have been nominated and accepted the nomination for a seat on the Council, an election will be conducted, in accordance with following time line:

  • Date call for nomination + 5 weeks publication of list of electorate;
  • Date call for Nomination + 6 weeks Campaign period closed. Ballots issued to members of voting electorate.
  • Date call for Nomination + 8 weeks Deadline to vote - voting closes:
  • Date call for Nomination + 9 weeks Results announced. If any ties, run off elections announced (voting only).
  • Date for call of Nomination + 10 weeks Run off election in Region with run off vote
  • Date for call of Nomination + 11 weeks Dead line for vote for second round;
  • Date for call of Nomination + 11 weeks and 2 days Announcement of result by Election Manager;

If all seats on the ccNSO Council for members of the ccNSO have been filled through this procedure, the election manager will file a report on the process to the members and ccNSO Council, no later than Date for call of Nomination + 12 weeks.

4. Call for nominations

According to the ICANN bylaws, ccNSO members from a Geographic Region can nominate and second a candidates for that region as a ccNSO councillor for that region. In order to nominate or second a candidate, a member must be a member of the ccNSO at the time of the call for nominations. Candidates need to be neither resident in the region nor a citizen of a country within the region in which they stand for election.

Template for nomination:

1 Region for which nomination is being made:

2a. Full name of the candidate being nominated:

2b. E-mail address of the candidate being nominated:

3a. Full name of the nominator:

3b. ccTLD and region of the nominator

3c. E-mail address of the nominator:

All nominations must be seconded by another ccNSO member in the same region.

Template for seconding a nomination:

1. Full name of nominator whose candidate is being seconded:

2. Full name of the candidate being seconded:

3a. Full name of the seconder:

3b. ccTLD and region of the seconder

3c. E-mail address of the seconder:

Accepting Nominations

The Election Manager shall confirm the nomination, by sending an e-mail to the candidate requesting their acceptance. Record of nominations and acceptances are provided at the ccNSO website.

The Election Manager shall confirm the list of the Nominees. In the event that a region has more than 1 nominee, an election in that region will be called in accordance with the established time line and announced by the election Manager.

5. Election of candidates.

According to the ICANN bylaws only members of the ccNSO are eligible to vote. To be eligible to vote, a ccNSO membership application must have been received by no later than 00:00 UTC on the date of the call for nomination and approved by the ccNSO Council one day before the election period opens (date call for nominations + 5 weeks and 6 days).

Each Geographic Region elects a councillor and the electorate for each region are the ccNSO members in that region.

The voting will be conducted according to the Approval method. Under the Approval method voters simply mark any number of candidates they favor, and the winner is the one with the most votes. In the event two or more candidates have received the same number of votes in the election, and no winner can be identified, a run off election will be conducted between these candidates.

The full record of the number of votes will be published at the end of selection process. The results of the election will be announced by the Election Manager.

6. Omission in or unreasonable impact of Guidelines

In the event these guidelines do not provide guidance and/or the impact is unreasonable the Chair of the ccNSO will decide.

7. Review of Guidelines

These guidelines will be reviewed annually, or adjusted when considered necessary. In order to become effective the updated guidelines need to adopted by the Council, and published on the ccNSO website. Before publishing the updated guidelines, the ccNSO secretariat will adjust the version number and insert the date the updated guidelines were adopted by the ccNSO Council.