Board election at Afrinic: Serious allegations of irregularities

The election to the board of the African IP address administration Afrinic in Mauritius is increasingly turning into a disaster. Following the interruption of the election on Monday, the votes are apparently currently being counted. The election committee has not yet commented on this. Meanwhile, the South African ISPA has filed a criminal complaint due to the irregularities. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has also sharply criticized the conduct of the elections.

The election for a new Afrinic board has been running since June 16. In addition to the week-long online voting, members had the opportunity to cast their votes in person at a hotel in Ebène City on Mauritius on Monday. There were apparently irregularities, which is why the head of the nomination committee canceled the election and announced that he would examine the proxies submitted for the election. A court had already prohibited the election at the weekend, but then revoked this order.

The resumption of the vote count on Wednesday is now causing outrage. Members, employees and the Internet ICANN, which is responsible for the global pool of IP addresses, have registered their opposition.

Sharp protests against the election

According to a letter from Afrinic employees, which is available to heise online, unauthorized powers of attorney were submitted in two cases. These had been voted on behalf of Emtel, a network operator in Mauritius, and the Mauritius Digital Promotion Authority. Therefore, around 1000 votes cast under proxy must be verified, the employees demand. In total, around 2400 Afrinic members were entitled to vote.

The South African ISPA filed a criminal complaint about the irregularities on Monday. The association also refers to a case in which a member was unable to vote because someone had allegedly already voted with an invalid proxy. In another case, an alleged proxy had "mysteriously" disappeared from the documents when it was checked. ISPA is now calling for the election to be annulled and for a list of the companies on whose behalf the proxy vote was held to be published.

ICANN has also reacted sharply to the events surrounding the Afrinic election. "A compliance review may be warranted following the shocking allegations and complaints regarding the Afrinic Board election," the guardian of global IP resources threatens in a letter today (Wednesday) with an official investigation. ICANN is sending an extensive list of questions about the election process and the disputed proxies, which Afrinic's receiver is to answer by June 26. This is the second time that ICANN has spoken out about the Afrinic election.

ICANN threatens investigation

ICANN also wants to know if and when anyone "representing Cloud Innovation Ltd or other Afrinic litigants" has spoken to the administrator or election officials about proxies or complaints. Afrinic is involved in a legal dispute with the companies Cloud Innovation and Larus. The reason for the dispute was the allocation of 6.9 million IP addresses to the companies, which rent them out to companies in Asia and around the world. Afrinic had therefore demanded the addresses back from the companies.

Afrinic had lost its ability to act in the course of the legal dispute and is under court-ordered receivership. The election of a new board of directors should lead the address allocation back into calmer waters. However, this does not look likely for the time being: ICANN expressly reserves the right to impose sanctions. Ultimately, this could also mean that ICANN withdraws Afrinic's authorization as a Regional Internet Registry (RIR).

(mki)