AFRINIC Board Election
 




0:00:00 Sunday Folayan: Committee.

[pause]

0:00:17 Seun Ojedeji : Sorry, Mr. Chair? 

0:00:18 Sunday Folayan : Yes sir.

0:00:20 Seun Ojedeji: I think according to the previous agenda, we were supposed to look at the pending resolutions. Are we skipping that? 

0:00:28 Sunday Folayan: By the agenda, we are towards the elections, the resolutions come after the board elections.

0:00:33 Seun Ojedeji: Okay, thank you.

[pause]

[French]

0:00:48 Barry Boubakar: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I will make then a presentation on the process before presenting the different candidacies for the two position in the Board. Position number five for Southern Africa and number six for East Africa. As you can see, you have the nomination, or the NomCom appointment process, I will not go into details. You have the different stages there. Just to introduce the NomCom team, is Janvier Ngnoulaye, Mustapha Ben Jemaa, Aminata A. Garba, presenting for the Board of Administration, and myself. We have run the appointment process for the Board. The terms of reference for NomCom is mainly what you have read in the bylaws, article 9.3 for us, for the NomCom, the appointment committee will have to do everything to have the satiSunday Folayanying number of candidates for the seats to be filled. We have the responsibility to supervise and to lead the elections with the election committee today.

0:02:34 Barry Boubakar: To initiate the call for candidacy to prescribe criteria and qualifications for eligibility for the elections, and also maybe hear the candidates, and finalize the list of candidates selected. We have received from the Board, the document which sets up the different stages with the deadlines for the appointment, it's not very clear here, but it was an internal document, with regard to the terms of reference of the guidelines from the board. We have initiated the call for candidacies. This was published in March 18, 2015, and in addition to the general criteria, the level of the bylaws, the candidates must be appointed, nominated by a member, a regular member of AFRINIC. If it's self-appointment nomination, they need the support of two members, regular members. To have participated at least two AFRINIC events in the last three years. To have at least five years experience in an AFRINIC pertinent field, mainly resource management, internet management, policy development, finance, auditing, and human resources.

0:04:28 Barry Boubakar: So these are a criteria that we have asked for for nominations. There were two other criteria which are important as well, and that is to not to be an AFRINIC employee, and not to be a member of a decision-making body of an organization that may have a conflict of interest that is... And of course to be available, and ready to participate the different meetings of the board. At the end of the nomination period, we have received six nominations for position number five Southern Africa, and eight for position six for East Africa. After analysing the nomination for the criteria defined, the nomination committee has validated five nominations for Southern Africa, position five, and two for East Africa, position six. So there have been seven appointments that have not been validated by the committee for the following reasons.

0:06:00 Barry Boubakar: Either because the organization that has nominated is not a member of AFRINIC, a regular member, or for the self-nomination there was not their support for two members of AFRINIC, or there was no participation in AFRINIC events in the last three years. The nominations that were validated by the committee are the following: For position five, Mark Elkins for South Africa; Paulos Nyirenda from Malawi; Michael Silber from South Africa; Lucky Masilela from South Africa; and Michelle Malkin from also South Africa. For position number six, the nomination that were validated were Abibu Ntahigiye from Tanzania and Badru Ntege from Uganda.

0:07:20 Barry Boubakar: These candidacies have been validated by the nomination committee. So, what has been validated by NomCom, the names that I have just mentioned, the list was published on the AFRINIC list on the site of AFRINIC on May 14, 2015. Now, for the vote. The electronic vote was opened on 25th of May 2015 was closed yesterday at 15:00 hours, universal time and the paper of vote will be done during the session. This is Mr. Chairman, the presentation that I wanted to make with regard to the NomCom process and that has been initiated. Thank you.

0:08:27 Sunday Folayan: Thank you very much, Boubakar.

0:08:37 Steffenn Sander : Hello. So I'm Steffenn, I was just looking at your presentation and as an outside observer, I just had a question. It seems like you added requirements for the candidates and in the end eliminated effectively most of the candidates from the East at least that what it looks like. So, I was just wondering why were these requirements put into place and why not let the community decide on those, on who to choose? Why were there so many people eliminated or not validated? 

0:09:12 Nii Quaynor: Well, thank you very much. There was one very interesting criteria that borders on this on some of the discussions we've been having and I like it to be confirmed that all the candidates made that criteria. I think I heard a criteria that said candidates should not be a member of a decision making body of an organization that can create conflict of interest because they make decisions on the things that we do here. If I got it correctly I want to understand whether ICANN falls in that category and whether we are being careful enough to make sure that we don't find ourselves in that kind of conflict situation. So can you confirm that all the candidates made this criteria. Thank you.

0:10:04 Sunday Folayan: Okay. If there are no comments from the floor, Boubakar, you can respond.

[French]

0:10:10 Barry Boubakar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the terms of reference of the nomination committee. There was one item that asked the nomination committee to setup criteria, eligibility criteria, that so what has been done and it was published during the call for candidates. The nomination committee met and has analysed and tried to... Because one of the objectives of NomCom is to have good quality candidates for the community. So we have discussed at the level of NomCom and we have identified the number of criteria that we as NomCom think would be a criteria that would allow the community to have good quality candidates. With regard to the second question, yes, in my opinion, ICANN is part of the category of organization, we think that if we are a member or the personnel in a decision body there will be a conflict of interest, that's my opinion.

0:11:39 Sunday Folayan: Yes, sir.

0:11:41 Nii Quaynor: Would the candidates confirm that they are not in that conflict situation? 

0:11:49 Sunday Folayan: Can you display the list of candidates, please? 

0:11:51 Barry Boubakar: Sorry? 

0:11:52 Sunday Folayan: I'm asking the Secretariat to display the list of candidates.

0:11:55 Barry Boubakar: Okay.

0:11:57 Mike Silber: Sorry, if I may add, I find this somewhat irregular, because the nominating committee vetted the nominations, and now it seems the chair of the nominating committee is questioning the work of the nominating committee. If the committee hasn't done it's work, then maybe they should go back and do their work. My understanding, my understanding, for what it's worth.

0:12:16 Sunday Folayan: Please, can you adjust the mic so you can speak into the mic? 

0:12:19 Mike Silber: I do apologize. Seeing that there seems to be a very personal attack being launched against me, let me state for the record that I am a non-executive director of an organization. As such, I have no power over AFRINIC, and I have cleared the conflict to the best of my ability. But obviously, if guidance and opinion needs to be taken on that fact, then I would expect that the nominating committee would've exercised that obligation before presenting the slates to the community.

0:12:56 Sunday Folayan: Sorry, Mike, can you do the full disclosure? What's the organization, what is the nature of the supposed conflict that may not be there, so that we're all we're all clear on the page. This is an era of transparency.

0:13:10 Mike Silber: Understood. My apologies Chair, I was under the impression that people, if they were interested, would have looked at my CV and my background. But, for the record, I am a member of the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, having been appointed to the board by the Country Code Name Supporting Organization.

0:13:35 Sunday Folayan: Professor Quaynor.

0:13:37 Nii Quaynor: Sir, I'm going to a different question. You can decide how we handle this, but I think, for now, our... Especially moving to a pushed transition of IANA Stewardship by NTIA, we need to really pay attention to these kinds of things. But, I'll leave this subject. Mr. Chairman, I believe the chairman of the board announced something amounting to hacking of NomCom. And the NomCom's independence and neutrality, I think, is fundamental to building the trust. And I saw this in the public email, I didn't know anything about it, and it said that the confidentiality of NomCom deliberations had been compromised, in essence. We wish to find out if anyone has had access to the leaked information, and ask staff to report what they know so far on the investigation. It's a serious concern, which if not properly and transparently addressed, will undermine the entire election that is taking place now. And in the future, possibly deny volunteers and candidates. I would like.

0:15:00 Sunday Folayan: Sorry to interrupt, sir. I really wanted the CEO to hear the statement. If you would not mind, please repeat. He was kind of distracted when you started.

0:15:09 Nii Quaynor: I don't want to repeat, I beg. Let's move on. It's painful for me, because...

0:15:15 Sunday Folayan: I am very sorry. I really want the CEO to pay attention. I apologize sir. I apologize.

0:15:23 Nii Quaynor: Okay, there was an email I got from the Chairman of the board, and it was discussing subject which to me amounted to hacking of the NomCom. And the Chairman's email announced that something that could lend to the confidentially of NomCom deliberations had been compromised. I would wish, and I think others here, because of their interest in the independence of the NomCom to nominate people for our election, and that integrity should never be violated. I wish to ask whether anyone has had access to the leaked information, and ask staff to report what they know so far in the investigation, before we use the same compromised NomCom to make decisions on board. Now, it's a serious concern, which if not properly and transparently managed, can undermine the the whole thing. And deny us future volunteers and candidates. And I was gonna just conclude by saying that I really think we should have a moratorium on hacking each other, Okay.

[laughter]

0:16:48 Nii Quaynor: We really should have. And I think we should close this one before we use the same thing to do election, otherwise the whole thing will become... Thank you.

0:17:01 Sunday Folayan: Thank you.

0:17:12 Alan Barrett: Thank you Chair. The NomCom mailing list is intended to be confidential. The intention is that the NomCom can use this for internal, confidential discussions. However, I must apologize to the NomCom. The mailing list was accidentally set up in such a way that subscribers could add themselves. So, there're two parts to it. The mailing list has an archive, which is correctly restricted to access only by members of that mailing list. But, the mailing list also has an interface where you can subscribe, and there was a mistake in that interface where anybody could have gone to the interface to add themselves to the mailing list, and after they did they would have had access to the archives. I have received a report from the staff that two people using three different email addresses indeed used this loophole to add themselves to the mailing list and thereby gained access to the archives.

0:18:31 Alan Barrett: And I have heard rumors in the community that those archives are widely available, but I've not seen them myself. And the bottomline from my perspective is that the AFRINIC staff made a mistake for which I apologize to the NomCom and the information that the NomCom would have expected to be private has unfortunately not remained private. I'm very sorry for that.

[French]

0:19:01 Barry Boubakar: I have a question with regard to this, Mr. Chairman. Since there was an investigation with regard to this act, I would like to know what are the provisions made because if the people who did this or have been identified I think that the community should know so that we take the necessary measures to at least ensure legal pursuits, sir.

[background conversation]

0:19:55 Steffenn Sander: I was the person who... I found out the configuration error on mailing list. I'll just go on and explain to people what happened. I was looking at the NomCom work and I was curious about it so I went looking for public information. On the mailing list webpage of AFRINIC it listed, "The following mailing lists are publicly available," etc. And one of the mailing lists mentioned there as being open to the public was the NomCom list. So I looked at that and I downloaded the archives to read them in my mail client because, to be honest, the web interface isn't very user friendly, and so I did indeed see the contents of those archives. Overall, I saw very honourable behaviour, so let there be no mistake on that. But there were some things that concerned me, so I gave a copy to two members of the board and informed Alan, the CEO, and the technical staff so they could close this loophole. I deleted the copies from my machine and after that I stepped out of this. So yes, it was me who got access because the NomCom list was explicitly marked as a publicly available mailing list. I now no longer have access, I confirmed with the technical staff that the list is now secure and I am no longer on it and I do no longer have a copy of those archives.

[applause]

0:21:42 Alan Barrett: Okay.

0:21:43 Sunday Folayan: Alan? 

0:21:44 Alan Barrett: Thank you, Sunday. And I'm pleased that when you find configuration errors that you report them in an ethical way. Thank you very much.

[applause]

0:22:00 Sunday Folayan: Nishal? 

0:22:00 Nishal Goburdhan: Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Nishal Goburdhan, some of you know me already. I can attest to Sander finding the configuration error on a public accessible list. He logged, he subscribed to the best of my knowledge would be his own name. He asked me to confirm that this was indeed something that could be done by anybody else. So I did the same using my real name and real email address so there was no duplicity attached to those, there's no whatever hiding in any sort of identity. Once we determined that this was indeed something that could be done I believe Sander reported the incident to two responsible parties so that they could push the matter forward. I do not and have never had a copy of the archives. I don't see how I could distribute something that I do not or ever had. Thank you.

0:22:49 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. John? 

0:22:51 John Walubengo: Thank you, Chair. Sorry, mine was on the alias comment by the NomCom Chair where he says that he feels that the Michael Silber nomination is really not in good standing. I think NomCom Chair should withdraw that statement. Otherwise, it may open a can of worms which we may not want to go into. Thank you.

0:23:18 Sunday Folayan: If I... Okay.

0:23:20 BARRY BOUBAKAR: I'm sorry.

0:23:21 BARRY BOUBAKAR: I'm sorry. I didn't get that.

0:23:22 Sunday Folayan: Okay. Can you please say it in layman's language? Please.

0:23:32 John Walubengo: I think Dr. Nii asked if Mike Silber's nomination is in conflict? And I think NomCom Chair agreed that it is, and so the question becomes what is it doing on the list? Does it mean that the NomCom did not do a good job? So he either withdraws that statement or maybe we ask them to redo the process. It can't be both ways. Thank you.

0:24:04 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. Christian? 

0:24:08 Christian Bope: Okay. My comment is just concerning the NomCom mailing list issue. Because they say they share it with members of the board. As member for the board, I think I will like to know the name of those who received that email. Thank you.

0:24:23 Sunday Folayan: Badru? 

0:24:25 Badru Ntege: Thank you Chair. I'd like to quote from the Mauritius Computer Misuse Act, and unauthorized access to computer data. "Any person who causes a computer system to perform a function, knowing that the access he intends to incur is unauthorized, shall commit an offence, and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine, not exceeding 50,000 rupees, and to penal servitude, not exceeding five years." I would like...

[laughter]

0:25:01 Badru Ntege: Legal council to really look at that. I think I also want to echo the message from the chairman of RIPE NCC, who said "We're family, we're here together." Right? You're a partner from one of the other RIRs, the first thing that should have been done was to inform the CEO as opposed to downloading the data. So, ethically, it was wrong. And whether you come within our community and you do that, it is also wrong to your community. So let's please make sure of that. Thank you.

0:25:39 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. Andrew? 

0:25:39 Andrew Alston: I just wanted to say, I was one of the people that Sander gave that list to. I did not distribute it beyond by giving it to other board members so that they were aware that it was there. And I did not, at any point, distribute it beyond the confines of the board, and only for the sake of being transparent that I had been handed it.

0:26:06 Sunday Folayan: Seun 

0:26:06 :Seun Ojedeji: Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair. My name is Seun Ojedeji. I think we've recognized that the list was not hacked. It was a technical configuration error. Based on that, that was how he was able to access it. So, perhaps the aspect of unauthorized access may not come in. In that case, I'd like to say that we move on. Let's leave this mailing list issue and continue, please, so that we can finish up on time. Thank you.

0:26:46 Sunday Folayan: Mark? 

0:26:47 Mark Elkins: Thank you Chair. Mark Elkins, I was the second board member who was contacted by Sander about this mailing list. When I was told I'd been mailed that mailing list, I then deleted it when I saw it. Thank you.

0:27:01 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. Rob? 

0:27:03 Mark Elkins: When I say I saw it, I mean I saw the mail come to me. I didn't read.

[laughter]

0:27:11 Sunday Folayan: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I think...

0:27:19 SUNDAY FOLAYAN: You have the floor, sir.

0:27:20 NII QUAYNOR: Chairman, I think that what we are seeing is symptomatic of the problem, you see? Something like this, as was said, you just target the CEO, not even the board, and just tell the CEO that "I have this, observe this." Not that you copy it, and you get friend to also copy it, and then you start to share. It breeds this sort of... You just handle it and it's straightforward, Okay? So, from my point of view, it's part of the things we need to repair. Okay? That we should just deal formally, operational things through the CEO, and if there are other issues, and it comes to knowledge of the Chair and so on, you can move on from there. I'd like to change my subject, because I've moved already, if you... I think in the post IANA transition situation, it's good for us to work on the accountability issues, and that is the only reason why I raised the issue of ensuring that none of the candidates are in the dual situation of decision making, both for this organization and for another organization who accredits us.

0:28:39 NII QUAYNOR: Because in the post IANA situation, that is the sort of thing that, in the accountability discussions, both at the global and the level here, will affect our judgement of our esteemed officers. So, it's not... I've been on ICANN board, I was your interim Chair for long, I have no interest in both of them, from that point of view. But I think we need to communicate something else, which is that we are making best efforts to be accountable to our communities, and one of the best ways to do that is to ensure that we're not sitting on both sides of the fence. I keep having difficulty with the discussion so far. I see people can't differentiate, and I was told this by one of our good engineers here, I won't mention his name, but if he's here he knows. He says that "We can't differentiate between the individual, the community, and the board." And it's like we're lumping everything together. And we need to be very careful when it comes to accountability, especially in the situation where we are the stewards, so to speak, and so I thought that issue needs to be thought through, before you did the voting. Thank you.

0:29:55 Sunday Folayan: Thank you, Prof. Owen? 

0:30:00 Owen De Long: Owen DeLong, ARIN AC, Akamai, I'm speaking strictly as a concerned member of the community. It seems to me listening to the discussion over the last several minutes that we've basically refused to learn the lessons of the last two days. We are, as near as I can tell, taking a simple mistake made by some collection of AFRINIC staff in misconfiguring a mailing list, followed by somebody noticing the mistake and we choose to micro-analyze the way he conducted himself after finding the mistake. I don't completely agree with his choice of actions, but he did a mostly honourable thing and at least he reported the issue to the appropriate parties and tried to do what he believed to be right under the circumstances. So I don't really have too much criticism there. And we have somehow tried to roll this into more conspiracy and more intrigue and more complaints and issues and whatnot.

0:31:03 Owen: It was a mistake, it happened. Let's take the lessons we can learn from it and move on. Unless it somehow impacts the state of officers or candidates, then less us continue with the voting and let us advance this meeting rather than having it continue to Sunday.

0:31:22 Sunday Folayan: Thank you.

[applause]

0:31:26 Sunday Folayan: Before I give the floor, on this issue please I would like to close the mic after Badru, so that we don't keep dragging on and on ...GJ? 

0:31:38 Geert Jan De Groot: Okay., not speaking in any official capacity. In a recent career, I was a security consultant, doing on a daily basis trying to break into systems to test their security. I can tell from my experience dealing with all kinds of government systems and anything else that the chances that in the IT systems of any organization including AFRINIC but specifically any organization, it is more likely that we will find in the future more security holes than we will not find security holes. We can discuss this over and over again, that does not make sense. I was in the room when it happened, I didn't really pay attention I was doing something else. What I would like to give to AFRINIC is to evaluate this especially from a PR standpoint and consider to have a reaction and a statement ready when it happens.

0:32:45 Geert Jan De Groot: Not if it happens, when it happens. The organization I worked for had such a statement printed out as a press statement in their safe, just for the moment it would ever happen. It is a very worst moment to publish this and all the chaos and huBarry Boubakarub I saw was based on panic, sheer panic, and not knowing what to do. So please start preparing for the next possible incident because unfortunately, in this industry it's going to happen, thank you.

0:33:18 Sunday Folayan: Yes.

0:33:20 Steffenn Sander: Just a very short statement. When I was looking for public information on the nominations, I found the NomCom list. There was no way I could have known this was the internal NomCom list until I actually read its contents. So, it was listed as public information, I was looking for it. Unfortunately it turned out to be a configuration mistake, but it's a... No intentional hacking at all.

0:33:48 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. Frank? 

0:33:50 Frank Habitch: Two small things and I hope we don't expand on the first one. First I believe none of the persons involved and none of the computers involved were Mauritius so I don't think we need to know about laws of Mauritius. And second thing, this all happened two days ago I believe, and this is a long time after that slate of candidates that was published, and it didn't change anything in the results of the work of the NomCom. So I think a discussion shouldn't be prolonged right now, and we can move on.

0:34:27 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. Badru? 

0:34:31 Badru Ntege: Sorry Chair, I go back to the point and I think one of the members said that they just saw it and deleted it. The point is there was an illegal act that happened. The principle, Stefan, as much as you can try and defend it, the Mauritian has a law against it. You broke that law. But the most painful thing is, you then come and laugh in the community that you're good, that good, I think for me, ethically it's wrong.

0:34:58 Sunday Folayan: Paulos? 

0:35:01 Paulos Nyirenda: Thank you, Paulos Nyirenda from Malawi. I just wanted to maybe find out or trace the issue that the slate has an anomaly and maybe what were going to do about it.

0:35:18 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. Ashok? 

0:35:23 Sunday Folayan: The broken Mauritius law.

0:35:29 Ashok Radhakissoon: Thank you. Now the legislation which has been cited by Badru, deals with hacking and a lot of offences. Now, I don't think we should be in a hurry to qualify what has happened as an illegal act unless all of the evidence, all of the material that we can have points to such a fact that it was illegal. From the little information I have gathered, it seems there was a configuration, which to my simple mind made a private mail become an open public mail, unless I'm wrong. So my very simple prosaic definition tells me that maybe there wasn't any privacy at all so long as the configuration defect was there. So if unintentionally people hit against those information found them and they saw it and that was the end of the matter, I don't see any illegal act in there, less a hacking. Hacking is a much bigger thing if you read that law, which has been cited very correctly. The second thing is that unless we have evidence that the material found there was used to cause any damage, prejudice to somebody else using it then it is something else. But from what we have as information, I wouldn't hasten to label that act as illegal in terms of the Computer Crime and Cyber Misuse Act 2003 of Mauritius, unless I get further information. I wouldn't jump to that conclusion right now.

[applause]

0:37:24 Sunday Folayan: CEO would have a word, then Chair NomCom, then I'll take Professor Quaynor.

0:37:32 Alan Barrett: Thank you, Chair. So as CEO of the company whose equipment was involved in this case I have no intention whatsoever of pressing any kind of legal case or charges against the person who found the configuration error.

[applause]

0:37:53 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. Chair NomCom? 

[French]

0:37:56 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think there is one question that was asked. I think it was John with regard to... We are aware that my case in a committee of ICANN and it's mentioned in his CV, but his mandate ends this year and we thought that there's no danger in that. And for the candidates who have not mentioned organization or there may be conflict of vendors, so if you look in the website the question that we have asked to the different candidates, the first question is the following, and I would say it in English, it hasn't been translated to French.

[pause]

0:39:07 BARRY BOUBAKAR: That was the first question and it was to be even after the election if we realize that there were a hidden information the committee can take decision with regard to that. I think that was the only question that was addressed to me.

[pause]

0:39:44 Sunday Folayan: Thank you members. I give the last opportunity to Professor Quaynor. Do you still want to exercise it because I want to close the mic so we move into elections.

0:39:55 NII QUAYNOR: Yes. I'm in a hurry, even more in a hurry because I'll be travelling. But I like to give a feedback to the lawyer. You come to my house, my door is wide open, you come, you take the mic, two of them and then you give it to only a few of us, that's not my sense of how things are supposed to work. If my door is open, you come in by mistake, you go out, you don't take things with you and when you go outside you don't go and select to be share. If you wanna share you tell everybody that I went and I took it. That's the sort of thing we are concerned about. 'Cause this may explain why we have very little activity on our mailing list, because some people may not be feeling comfortable to be exchanging on a mailing list. But when you are in a community, they talk. So, if we want to change and grow the thing in a certain way, we have to be assuring certain kinds of things with regards to how we communicate on the mail. And I think I just had to make that point. But please, let's proceed.

0:41:04 Sunday Folayan: Thank you. So, members, can we proceed? 

0:41:08 Gregoire Ehoumi: It's only the mailing list.

0:41:09 Sunday Folayan: Okay. Last comment.

0:41:11 Gregoire Ehoumi: Yes, this one. This is on the...

0:41:13 Sunday Folayan: On the slate.

0:41:14 Gregoire Ehoumi: On the slate. What is the position enforced? I'll like to ask Dr. Barry please, if this is the final list of candidates because according to the bylaws, it doesn't state which time period in which you are supposed to give us the final list of candidates. So I see validating... They've gone through some level of validation but then the constitution doesn't say that... It just says that you have to give us the final list of... Sorry, the constitution states that you have to give us the final list of the candidates before the elections. It didn't say what time before the election. So please, I'll like to know if this is the final list or there's any future amendments you intend to make according to the new validations.

0:41:56 BARRY BOUBAKAR : This is the slate. It's the final list of candidate nominations validated. So these are people who will be standing for the seats... Election for seat five and seat six today.

0:42:13 Sunday Folayan: Thank you members. I would like to at this point step down, hand over to the Chair of NomCom so that we can have the presentation of candidates. Thank you.

[applause]

[pause]

0:43:02 BARRY BOUBAKAR: So we would like to invite the candidates to come and introduce themselves to the community, but the maximum time for each candidate is five minutes including eventually question and answers. So, I would ask each candidate, please, to try to talk not more than three, maximum four minutes please. Three minutes will be fine. So, the first candidate I would like to invite is Mark Elkins.

[pause]

0:43:47 Mark Elkins: Good morning everybody. My name is Mark Elkins. I have served on the AFRINIC Board for the last six years, but if you look further back you'll find a I'm also mentioned as one of the pioneer of members of AFRINIC. It's something that I believe in and I would therefore like you to vote for me in this election coming up. So, I can go on about all the great things I've done etcetera etcetera but what does that really help you with? So let me tell you a story of the person who's standing in front of you. A member of the community, he's certainly here somewhere, I don't know if he's in the room at the moment and he came to me and said "Hey Mark do you remember 10 years ago you gave me some Cisco routers and that meant that I could go away and I could fulfill a course and I could progress with my life, and guess what? I've now given those two Cisco routers to my 18 year old daughter and she's also doing the same sort of thing." So this is the sort of person and I think that's great, and this is the sort of thing I believe in and this is the sort of person I am. So, like I said, "Please vote for me." Thank you.

[applause]

0:45:16 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Please any question you have for Mark? If not, thank you. Paulos please.

[pause]

0:45:51 BARRY BOUBAKAR: You are not entitled to use the three minutes left from Mark.

[laughter]

0:46:00 Paulos Nyirenda: I wish I could. Thank you Chair. I'm Paulos Nyirenda. I'm from Malawi. I think I have said a lot already at the community about this election, and I put my case already to the community. I've been a board member for three years, this is my third year. I think I have done quite a bit on the board. Most significantly, I've Chaired the audit committee for the last two years. I have emphasized regional diversity in my talk to the board and I'm emphasizing this as well here as well as regional diversity within my region, Southern Africa. I would like to do a number of things with my term renewal, if renewed, including actively pushing forward the issue of transparency and accountability through the various initiatives that are there including audit. Making sure that our budget is in order, making sure that we improve penetration of uni-guided files in our region as well as in the whole Africa region as well.

0:47:57 Paulos Nyirenda: In my distribution I've already indicated who I am, what I have done, what positions I seek, and if you look at them you'll find that they make me qualify quite significantly for a renewal of term on the board. So, my appeal, vote for me, improve regional diversity. Thank you.

0:48:23 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you very much Paulos.

[applause]

0:48:27 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Any questions for Paulos? It's not the case so...

0:48:33 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you.

0:48:38 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Mike.

0:48:50 Mike Silber: Thank you Chair, morning all. My name is Mike Silber, you've seen me being quite vocal. You might have seen me at some previous meetings, you might have seen me in the lists or on the online participation. As you would have gathered, I'm a lawyer by training. I work in the network space and my passion is connecting people. But my strong legal background gives me, I believe, a unique skill set which, at the moment, is sorely missing within the AFRINIC board. I have been nominated by TENET, the academic network within South Africa. Also a proud member of the Ubuntu Net Alliance. I was not nominated by my employer, but I am employed by Liquid Telecom, there was some question on the list. I am a Liquid employee, but I don't hold this nomination as a Liquid employee. And I'm also very cognisant that when you enter a room as a fiduciary holder, as a board member, you leave your affiliations at the door and your primary responsibility is to this organisation.

0:50:07 Mike Silber: Unfortunately, we've seen over the last few days that there are some questions as to people's ability to do that. And really, my point in being here is not to criticize any of the other candidates. They're all fine people, some of whom have served with distinction, some of whom are proposing to enter this community. I think where I differentiate myself is I have a strong governance background, having served on multiple boards, many not for profit, across the globe. I can bring an insight that I don't think the other candidates have and I think that I can actually effectively make changes regarding the existing governance and transparency challenges that AFRINIC is experiencing.

0:50:57 Mike Silber: Thank you.

[applause]

0:51:03 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Any questions for Mark? Or for Mike, sorry.

[laughter]

0:51:08 Mike Silber: It's confusing, we do look alike.

0:51:10 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Sorry. Yes, Ben? 

0:51:11 Benjamin Eshun : Yeah, hi Mike, just the same question. I just wanted to know how many non... Sorry... How many non-profit organizations have you served on? You just said you served on non-profit organizations...

0:51:19 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Boards.

0:51:20 Benjamin Eshun: Boards, yes that's right, boards.

0:51:21 Mike Silber: So until approximately a month ago I was a director. I was, in fact, one of the founding members and director since inception of the.za Domain Name Authority. I'm a director of TENET Fiduciary Network in South Africa and I'm a director of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Well, I'm not a director but I serve on the management committee of the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa as well. One could argue that it's the equivalent of a board position.

0:51:58 Benjamin Eshun: Okay. And the other second question is, how do you, what do you call, marry the two because on one side you are an employee of a profit organisation, Liquid, and on the other side you are also on the board of a non-profit. So how do you mix the two because we've seen that sometimes the thinking could be a little... So, how do you manage the two worlds, I'd like to know.

0:52:21 Mike Silber: Thank you, I think that's a really interesting question and it's something that I am very careful about. I think as a lawyer and having been in private practice before I moved in-house, you become very adept at recognizing where the boundaries of your representation begin and end. Because one can represent entities who are possibly competing with each other and you need to draw the lines and the one issue is very clearly confidentiality, that confidential information belonging to one is not shared with the other. The second is very clearly disclosing any potential conflicts as and when they arise and getting a ruling from the Chair of the board or the governance committee as may be appropriate. And the third, is managing yourself and your ethics as a person, acting with the integrity that Badru was talking about previously, to ensure that whatever you say is said with the highest of integrity and there's no crossover.

0:53:25 Benjamin Eshun: I see. So in your own words...

0:53:28 BARRY BOUBAKAR: This is the last question.

0:53:29 Benjamin Eshun: This is the last question, yes, please. So what would you recommend if a board member on your space, you found that somebody had breached this fine divide as you've stated? What would be your normal... How would you react or if... Let me put it this way. If you were to find that another colleague board member or someone of that relation had put themselves in this space how would you be able to... How would you react? 

0:53:57 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Very short answer, please.

0:54:00 Mike Silber: Certainly. Well, I think the critical thing, and Fiona repeated her previous suggestion of having some sort of governance committee. And I think the critical thing is that you need proper structures and you need proper process because people are entitled to due process. But if there is a need to take action against somebody who's been in breach, then you take action. You can't have people without integrity serving the community and serving the company.

0:54:28 Benjamin Eshun: Okay, thank you.

0:54:29 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you, Mike. Okay, Lucky, is he around? 

[applause]

0:54:48 BARRY BOUBAKAR: The floor is yours.

0:54:50 Lucky Masilela: Thank you, Chair. I brought this just in case I have a question in French. As I comment, I want to open with a quote from one of the greatest giants that has walked this world. "The quality of change in our society will greatly depend upon the quality of leadership that is exercised." That was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. My name is Lucky Masedela as the Chair has said. I think, if you will go into my CV, you will realize that there is vast experience that I have. I have served and served in numerous boards, ranging from big companies, looking at big budgets. And not belittling the budget here, there are complexities in this organization, and for me today, when I had raised my hand a few days ago or a few months ago, I wanted to raise it even higher, I wanted to raise both hands, looking at the opportunities that were occurring, that were manifesting themselves here.

0:56:15 Lucky Masilela: I stand up understanding the value of working in communities, the value of ensuring that we do not sit in such gatherings and talk amongst ourselves, but to include the communities that we believe we represent. And, for me, I have that affinity in working very closely in bringing communities to participate here. I have a lot of confidence in the AFRINIC staff and I believe that the only value that as a board member we'll be bringing is this strategic support. Nothing more but the strategic support, the fiduciary duty ensuring that issues of governance are going to be enshrined and upheld by us board members. One of the dreams or the visions that I have on skills development and proper accreditation as one thing that I would like to bring, I have done this presently whereby a course in DNS in South Africa is now accredited and is recognized by the South African Qualifications Authority.

0:57:23 Lucky Masilela: It is one of the dreams that I would want to see the courses that are running here translate themselves into a qualification that is recognized globally and not only a certificate that cannot be used in any space in the world. I have had discussions, I would like to see us work towards building centers of excellence. I was a little bit upset and hurt in Singapore when DoD EU read, signed an MOU agreement. I was jealous, I was selfish, I thought, "We can do it," I wanted that for us. I think we deserve it. I approached Fadi and I said, "Fadi, what has happened there is a good thing but we can do it better. It needs to be done by us, we need to be in this discussion as Africans, we cannot be allowing the continuation of African solutions to African problems being done out there." And that was the discussion that I had and these things that I would like to bring forth, and to make sure that as a dream, it's going to be a dream that I'd like to share with yourselves. Policy Development... The Chair says I'm done.

0:58:40 Lucky Masilela: Of course I would have been finished long ago because there's an expression in my country that says, [foreign language]. What that means easily translated [foreign language] Or, "You're telling a long story. Are you leaving us?" "No, I'm not leaving you. I'll be with you for as long as it's possible". Thank you.

[applause]

0:59:06 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you. Any questions for Lucky? No questions.

0:59:15 Lucky Masilela: Thank you, sir.

0:59:19 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Colleagues, Michelle wanted to be with us. She made arrangements for coming to Tunis. Unfortunately, due to administrative issues, she could not join us so she sent us a video of this.

0:59:42 Michelle Mc Cann: Hello, I'm Michelle McCann and I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to present to you today as well as apologize that I can't meet with you all in person. As a brief introduction...

0:59:53 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Can you pause, and we need volume.

1:00:04 Michelle Mc Cann: Hi all, I'm Michelle McCann and I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to present to you today, as well as apologize that I can't meet with you all in person. As a brief introduction, I have been involved in the Internet industry for over 12 years now and I personally faced the obstacles, be it regulatory, commercial or technical, which truly have slowed down the Internet development within Africa, compared to our counterparts such as RIPE and ERAN. However, the time is now changing and personally I've seen this within the Southern African region, where we are seeing huge amounts of content, investment, large amount of recourse growth and adoption of IPv6 resources. Currently I'm heavily involved in infrastructure developments throughout the Southern African region, primarily focused on collocation and caring strategies. And I've made it my personal goal to improve the existing process as well as content scarcity issues within the region. As I've seen this is the limiting factor for African Internet growth, primarily focused on education and government services.

1:01:12 Michelle Mc Cann: I suppose the bigger question is what am I going to bring to the table? I'm a commercial person who truly understands the strategic benefits of distributing and promoting AFRINIC services throughout the region, across all segments, which is not only our usual services such as network operators. This also includes government services, enterprises as well as education facilities. To further this it's largely important that we start promoting AFRINIC to the other RIRs, so in order for them to understand that recourse allocation has grown over a period of time, even through all the challenges that we as Africa has faced. AFRINIC is well positioned to be the thought leader in many strategic projects, including existing ones such as the Axis Project, which is currently being driven by individual players as well as global members, who may or may not have Africa's based interested at heart.

1:02:07 Michelle Mc Cann: Promotion and involvements of strategic, local and global stakeholders are key to Africa's success, and this is where I personally feel AFRINIC can play the central facilitation role similar to that of RIPE. The wish list could go on and on and on, however I'm limited in time and I'd like to wish you all a succesSunday Folayanul week and thank you once again for this opportunity. Please feel free to contact me directly, should you wanna share any ideas or any global experiences. Have a great week ahead.

[applause]

1:02:42 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you Michelle, she might be online. So, I would like to invite now the candidate for the Eastern region... For the Eastern seat, Eastern Africa and to Abibu.

1:03:10 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: Good afternoon AFRINIC members and non-AFRINIC members. My name is Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye, I work for tzNIC and it's a greater honour to stand before you to seek the endorsement for seat number six representing Eastern Africa in the AFRINIC board. I haven't been an AFRINIC board member, but I have occupied various board membership and also I have worked with various committees within the country, in Africa, and also I do represent Africa in the ccNSO of ICANN. So a lot of information has been shared by NomCom, but I will briefly explain some of the few issues. That I have more than 20 years experience in Internet and Internet governance issues, and I have held various positions and the recent one that I'm the manager of.tz ccTLD. Which is a first growing registry. If you remember, it was voted in the second best registry in Africa during the DNS forum in Durban.

1:04:20 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: I also seat in the tzNIC board as a secretary and I'm a co-opted member in Engineers Registration Board of Tanzania. I'm the executive member of AFTLD in the capacity of treasurer and also I'm the chairman of the ISOC TZ. As I said I'm a ccNSO council member representing Africa, that is African CC community in ICANN, and I'm also the chair of the organizing committee of capacity building initiative called tzNOG. So far we have done two training in Arusha and Mwanza and in September we have the third meeting in Zanzibar. You are all welcome. I was also the task force member for DotArica, a group which is appointed by the Africa Union Commission. So through the course of involvement, internet evolution, I have hosted AFTLD training in Arusha in 2009. I was part of the host as well for the AFNOG and AFRINIC trainings in 2011 in Dar es Salaam, and I also coordinated the AFRINIC trainings in Dar es Salaam, this was in November 2104. Recently I was in the task-force for IPv6 deployment in Tanzania and soon we're gonna take some initiative to have all AFRINIC members in Tanzania to have deployed IPv6.

1:05:57 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: So what pushed me to contest for this position? I thought that I am capable to work with the talk of AFRINIC, and basically I have been doing so in Tanzania. And I think I can do it better if I become the AFRINIC board member. So, I request all of you to vote for me, to vote for a change. Thank you.

[applause]

1:06:15 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you. Thank you Abibu. Any question for Abibu? Mark? 

1:06:27 Mark Elkins: Mark Elkins. You mentioned that you were voted second best ccTLD. Who was the first? 

[laughter]

1:06:38 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: The first was South Africa.

[laughter]

1:06:43 Mark Elkins: I really do wish you well. Thank you.

[laughter]

1:06:45 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: Thank you so much. Thank you Mark.

[laughter]

1:06:47 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: Basically, they did beat us in terms of numbers, but not in terms of technology. We are DNS tech ready and we are the first one in Africa.

[applause]

1:07:03 NII QUAYNOR: And who was the NomCom? Who was the NomCom for this thing you refer to Mr. Abibu? 

1:07:08 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: Sorry. What was the question? 

1:07:13 NII QUAYNOR: The award you refer to in the DNS forum. I just want to know who was the NomCom? 

1:07:18 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: For DNS forum? Basically, it was... We were selected by ISOC, ICANN and fTLD. So, fTLD, ICANN and ISOC are the ones who recommended tzNIC as the best second registry in Africa.

1:07:33 BARRY BOUBAKAR: And.za the first... The best.

1:07:34 Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye: Yeah, and don't forget that I was voted the young... I got the young award last year. Thank you.

[applause]

1:07:48 BARRY BOUBAKAR: So, last but not the least, Badru? 

[pause]

1:08:16 Badru Ntege: Good afternoon everybody. My name is Badru Ntege, and I'm running for East African seat as well. I'd like to... I think you all know me, but let me tell you a little bit about myself outside AFRINIC. I do run an organization, own and run an organization which employs up to about 1000 technical engineers around East Africa. We support most of the telcos within the region. And I also participate... I also am a board member of the Uganda Business Process Outsourcing Association. I also sit on the Presidential Investors' Round Table for the ICT, in terms of ICT policy from a professional policy and a business policy point of view. I'm a... As I said, in terms of the regional staff, I'm across the region in most of the countries, it's six countries that I operate in. But also from the AFNOG and AFRINIC point of view, I have been within this community for the last 13 years. I hold this community to heart, and the growth of this community, the integrity of this community to me is the most important thing.

1:09:32 BADRU NTEGE: To be able to hold integrity, you need to have the courage and consideration to stand when things are not right, to be able to speak out even though you're the only one speaking, you need to be able to hold that voice, but also to understand when to use the voice. When it's important to deliver the job you do, which we did and made sure that we focus, completed the job, and then when you need to actually deliver the truth, then you need to do that. So, I believe in full integrity, I believe in service for this community. I still believe I can do a lot more for this community. Yes, I will accept that we have... That my competition, Mr. Abibu, I know Abibu very well and I do respect him highly. However, with all that I do believe I still have a lot more to deliver for this community. Thank you.

[applause]

1:10:36 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you Badru. Questions for Badru? In French? Okay, good.

1:10:48 Arnaud Amelina: Thank you. I would like to know, that despite all what happened in the last two days and your name has been mentioned several times, what motivates your candidacy? 

1:11:19 BADRU NTEGE: The question is what motivates my candidacy after all that's happened? To me, principles are deep. They're fundamental and they don't change. And if you stand by your principles, you have to be prepared to stand for them. As I said, even though you're alone. That set aside, that has been done, I feel that at least we have opened up what we needed to open up. I'm still willing to serve the community, and I think we can now move forward and I think I'm still able to serve it. Yes, Fiona? 

1:11:50 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Yep, please, Fiona? 

1:11:52 Fiona Assonga: Badru, you are running for the East African regional seat. In view of your relationship in the East African region, we the East African operators, we the bodies that represent these East African operators, what do you think you're going to do different that you have not done? Secondly, I... Okay, without it looking like you are stepping down a few minutes ago for the show, having stepped down, why should we consider you again for this position? 

1:12:35 BADRU NTEGE: Thank you, let me handle the last one first. If you strongly believe in your position and you're prepared to stand alone, and if it means to step down, even if this was last year and I still had a... If this was in the middle of my term, the issue at hand, I still would have stepped down. If it was one year without an election, the issue at hand, the level of lack of transparency at hand, if it was last year and is the second term of my term I still would have stepped down. It is that deep for me that I will step down at any time if the principles are broken. I did not step down in Mauritius, because as I said earlier there was an important job to be done, and until that job was done then the right time to happen for the issues to happen, and this is the forum that we handle those issues. That is why.

1:13:31 BARRY BOUBAKAR: The first question? 

1:13:32 BADRU NTEGE: The first question in terms of while I'm here, what will I do to operators in the region? I have said already I am one of the major employers for technical operators in the region. I have been responsible for raising the pay and the value of operators in the region from an employer point of view. Now, from a policy point of view, I have been involved heavily in policy, and I have also been able to influence through my position on the investors round table a number of connectivities, the fact that we have CCOM in Uganda, that was part of my intervention. In terms of opening the blockage that they have. And I have not been approached by Kenya operators, you had an alternate member was resident in Kenya.

1:14:22 Fiona Asonga: So, what do you plan to do different? 

1:14:25 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Last question please. Last.

1:14:27 BADRU NTEGE: I think we did have a discussion earlier this week, we should have more dialogue with each other, and see ourselves as a region, not a country. East Africa is made up of a number of countries, as I said, I am active in all those countries. However, we need to open up more dialogue, and if you're open to dialogue, we will have dialogue.

1:14:51 BARRY BOUBAKAR: Thank you.

[applause]

1:14:57 BARRY BOUBAKAR: So, we have now heard or listened to all candidates. I would at this time now hand over to Ernest, who will guide us through the process. Ernest.

1:15:15 Ernest Byaruhanga: Thank you very much Boubakar and all the candidates. I hope you have all heard, and we trust that you are ready exercise your power to vote them in or not in. So, we will try to make this as quick as possible. Members of their valid proxies that received ballots yesterday can come up and cast their votes when called to. The ballot boxes are still the same two ballot boxes that will be in front of you, can I ask my colleagues to put them right on the tables? The CEO yesterday notified those that were leaving earlier to hand their ballots over to a trusted colleague to vote for them. So, we believe that was done. And again, the ballot paper is green in colour, so if we noticed anybody with a different coloured ballot paper we shall call security for you. [chuckle] So, please tick only one candidate per region.

1:16:40 Ernest Byaruhanga: So, you have the ballot paper and it has the two seats, and the candidates standing for that seat in two columns, so for each seat please tick just one candidate. If you tick more than one candidate on any seat, that ballot will be invalidated. I hope that is clear. I hope that is clear enough. After the voting of course we shall as usual ask the volunteers that helped us yesterday to come forward and assist us with the tallying.

[pause]

1:17:42 Ernest Byaruhanga: Regarding the e-voting, the electronic voting ended yesterday as scheduled, at 4:00 PM local time, but the tallying has not been done yet and it will be done right after the paper ballots have been cast. And we urge all the trustees that will unlock the e-voting tallying, to be ready with their keys. And that is Dr. Boubakar Barry, Ashok, and Alan, who I believe are all here. The results then from the e-voting will be combined with those from the paper ballot to get the final number of votes. Again, when the e-tallying is done, the same observers can come and watch but it will be done right in front of you on the screens. So, can I ask everybody or anybody holding a ballot that wants to vote to come and cast their votes now. There are two ballot boxes right in the center, and the other side where I'm pointing. Please, feel free to cast your votes now. Thank you. May I also ask my colleagues from the e-com to prepare the e-voting system, so that the trustees can cast... Can upload their keys right now. The trustees you've... Any of the trustees is also going cast a ballot, I believe may be that could apply to Dr. Boubakar, please cast your ballot, the paper vote, then go ahead and help to unlock the e-tally. Thank you.

[background conversation]

1:19:50 Ernest Byaruhanga: Members, we have another ballot box. We have two ballot boxes, three actually. So please feel free to go to the other side and cast your ballots from there instead of queueing up on one side. Thank you.

[background conversation]

1:21:02 Alan Barrett: Yesterday, we had three volunteers from outside the region to help us with the counting. Today, one of those three has asked not to be included again, so we have only two. I would like to ask a third person, and Nigel, if you're willing. Thank you very much.

[pause]

1:21:50 Ernest Byaruhanga: Has everybody casts their vote? In case anybody else has not cast their vote, we shall give another... In two minutes, in the interest of time, we shall close the voting and start counting of the ballots. Anybody that has not cast their ballots, please come forward.

[background conversation]

1:24:08 Ernest Byaruhanga: Okay, so voting officially finished. May I ask our volunteers, to start the tallying. Thank you very much.

[pause]

[background conversation]