Re: voting

["John B. Reynolds" <john@reynolds.chicago.il.us>]

Kemt Crispin wrote:
> On Fri, May 21, 1999 at 03:30:06PM +0000, John B. Reynolds wrote:
> >If I understand the process correctly, the purpose of the constituency 
meetings 
> >is to discuss membership criteria and rules of operation.  Voting for 
officers 
> >and/or Names Council members can not take place until those rules are in 
place 
> >and the constituency has been recognized by ICANN.
> >Otherwise, there would be no 
> >basis for determining who is entitled to vote.  This rules out holding such 
> >elections at or before the Berlin meeting.  
> 
> Not at all.  Anyone can hold elections -- there is nothing to prevent
> a proto-constituency from selecting its representatives in advance --
> since it has not been recognized by ICANN, it can basically do
> whatever it wants.  If ICANN chooses to recognize it, then that
> election will be meaningful.  Of course, ICANN can recognize a group
> on a condition that they hold new elections at a later time, or
> that they modify their membership rules in some way.
> 

Fair elections require that all qualified interested parties know the election 
rules and procedures beforehand, and have the opportunity to participate.  Any 
DNSO constituency election held prior to its recognition would fail the first 
test, and any election held in Berlin would also fail the second by excluding 
those not physically present there.  For that reason, I call upon ICANN to 
condition its recognition of any DNSO constituency on its agreement to defer 
Names Council and other elections until after the Berlin meeting.  I also call 
upon ICANN's leadership to signal its intention to impose such conditions prior 
to the Berlin meeting in order to forestall any confusion about the ground rules 
for the constituency formation meetings.

> -- 
> Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
> kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain
>