The results of APNIC’s 2023 Executive Council election were announced on 2 March 2023. This year’s election saw a number of process improvements including due diligence procedures and a Code of Conduct for election nominees (more information available here).
The Election Chair was Angel Averia, President of PhCERT, who reported that the election process was successful and uncontested, with no complaints or issues reported. However, the Code of Conduct (CoC) procedures were well used, with nearly 40 complaints received prior to the close of the election.
After early CoC complaints, APNIC Members were advised to beware of callers impersonating APNIC and credible reports of threatening and anonymous phone calls. Eventually, the number of CoC complaints necessitated that APNIC EC appoint Maddocks, an Australian law firm, as CoC Chair to assess and determine the complaints received.
Maddocks have provided a transparency statement regarding the number of complaints received, the number of breaches determined, and the methodology for determining those breaches. The transparency statement is now published.
Decision not to Publish
The transparency statement notes that the CoC Chair determined there were nine breaches of the CoC. However, APNIC chose to publish only one of these breaches before the election.
In the case of eight of the genuine breaches identified by the CoC Chair, election candidates issued threats of legal injunctions against publication of details that would have interrupted the election process if successful. It was decided not to risk any delay to determining or announcing the election result, and therefore not to publish those details.
JPNIC and Member correspondence
Following the announcement of the election result, APNIC received public correspondence from JPNIC, which was also read to the AGM by a member of JPNIC staff. This statement noted the limitations of the election CoC, and called for urgent action to strengthen APNIC’s structure and governing documents, and reduce risks to APNIC’s stability.
In addition, the EC received numerous requests from Members for revisions to the APNIC By-laws to strengthen the eligibility criteria for EC nominees and protect the integrity of APNIC elections. APNIC thanks JPNIC and all Members who took the time to write to the EC on these matters.
Next steps
A review of APNIC’s governance and structure has been under discussion by the APNIC EC since late 2021. The EC has confirmed that the request for By-law changes will be discussed at its next meeting in May, as part of this review, and an update to Members will be published following that meeting.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.