EC Election Procedures for APNIC 33

General Principles

The Executive Council (EC) serves as the governing body of APNIC, as defined in the APNIC By-laws. It holds formal elections for the appointment of members of the EC. Elections are held by secret ballot of the membership.

In March 2010 the EC commissioned an independent panel to review the EC election process and make recommendations as appropriate. The APNIC EC has adopted the recommendations made by the panel.

These recommendations include:

The appointment of an Election Chair
The use of Secretariat staff to serve as Election Officers to manage the elections process and Election Tellers to count the ballots
The appointment of independent Scrutineers to observe the vote counting
The documentation of the EC Election procedure

APNIC EC members

Each EC member serves a two-year term of office and is eligible for re-election at the end of each term.

Each member serves as an individual, not as a representative of any other party or APNIC Member, and must act at all times in the best interests of APNIC.

APNIC 2012 EC election

For the 2012 EC election, there are three vacant seats open for election. Each seat serves a two-year term, starting from 2 March 2012. The call for nominations opens on 6 January 2012 and closes on 10 February 2012.

Voting entitlement

Only APNIC Members can vote in these elections.

APNIC Members are entitled to a number of votes according to their Membership Tier:

Membership Tier	IPv4 prefix	IPv6 prefix	Votes
Associate	None	None	1 vote
Very Small	Up to and including /22	Up to and including /35	2 votes
Small	>/22, up to and including /19	>/35, up to and including /32	4 votes
Medium	>/19, up to and including /16	>/32, up to and including /29	8 votes
Large	>/16, up to and including /13	>/29, up to and including /26	16 votes
Very Large	>/13, up to and including /10	>/26, up to and including /23	32 votes
Extra Large	>/10	>/23	64 votes

Voting

APNIC Members can vote online through MyAPNIC, or on site at the APNIC Member Meeting (AMM).

Online voting

Online voting is only available to APNIC Members via MyAPNIC. Users need a valid APNIC certificate when voting and must fill out specific forms that validate submitted votes.

This system preserves anonymity, storing a record of who has voted and a separate record of votes cast.

Voting entitlements are only available to:

Corporate Contacts, or
Authorized contacts with voting rights given by the Corporate Contact

The voting period starts on 15 February 2012 and ends at 09:00 (UTC +5:30) on 29 February 2012.

Proxy appointment

Corporate Contacts may appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf. The proxy holder need not be from the Member organization, but must be registered to attend the APNIC Member Meeting in person.

The proxy appointment period starts on 15 February 2012 and ends on 29 February 2012 at 09:00 (UTC +5:30).

Proxy Appointment Procedure

Proxies can be submitted to the APNIC Secretariat:

Online, via MyAPNIC, or
By printing and signing a Proxy Appointment Form and faxing it or emailing a scanned copy to the APNIC Secretariat

In processing proxy voting authorities, the APNIC Secretariat:

Validates the current status of the Member lodging the proxy authority
Validates that the status of the person who appointed the proxy is a Corporate Contact

The proxy appointment is valid only when confirmed by the APNIC Secretariat.

Confirmation emails are sent to both the Corporate Contact and the appointed proxy once the proxy appointment is verified.

On-site voting

The on-site voting period starts at around 09:00 (UTC +5:30) when announced by the Election Chair of the APNIC Member Meeting, and ends at 14:00 (UTC +5:30) on 2 March 2012.

Corporate Contact(s), contacts with voting rights, or appointed proxies can collect ballot papers from the Voting desk until 14:00 (UTC +5:30) on 2 March 2012.

On-site voting ballot paper

Ballot papers can be collected from the Voting desk. They provide clear instructions on how to fill them out and will be marked with a unique stamp.

Bulk ballot papers with 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 votes are to be used in the election. The ballot paper is worth the number of votes your Membership tier entitles you to:

Associate:	1 vote
Very Small:	2 votes
Small:	4 votes
Medium:	8 votes
Large:	16 votes
Very Large:	16 votes x 2
Extra Large:	16 votes x 4

Members who wish to split their vote may exchange their ballot paper at the Voting desk for a set of single-vote papers equal to the member's total voting entitlement.

For a vote to be valid the ballot paper must be marked with an 'x' in the box against the names of up to three candidates.

A ballot paper is invalid if:

No boxes are marked
More than three boxes are marked
There is ambiguous marking
It does not bear a validation stamp

On-site voting logistics

The Voting desk is set up outside the meeting room.

When the Election Chair announces the opening of the on-site voting, the ballot box will be opened and shown to the delegates in the AMM before it is moved to the Voting Desk and sealed by the Election Officers, to be ready for ballot collection. The ballot box is supervised by the Election Tellers at all times.

Any enquiries regarding on-site voting should be directed to the Election Officers who will be available at the Voting desk.

Election Chair

The APNIC EC appoints the Election Chair. The Chair’s responsibilities are to:

Oversee the election process
Appoint the Election Scutineers
Declare the election results
Resolve disputes

Election Officers

The APNIC EC appoints the Election Officers from the APNIC Secretariat staff.

Their responsibilities are to:

Administer the call for nominations
Manage the online and on-site voting processes
Supervise the ballot paper collection
Perform the vote counting with the Election Tellers
Retrieve the online voting reports

Election Tellers

The APNIC EC also appoints the Election Tellers from the APNIC Secretariat staff.

Their responsibilities are to:

Supervise the ballot box
Issue the ballot papers on-site
Validate and count the votes
Report the results to the Election Chair

Election Scrutineers

The Election Chair appoints the Election Scrutineers from the staff of other RIRs, ICANN, and ISOC who are present at this meeting. Election Scrutineers do not vote, and must be independent from any APNIC Member or candidate.

Their responsibilities are to:

Observe the Election Tellers in counting the votes
Not handle or touch the ballot papers
Notify the Election Chair in case any anomaly or issue is identified

Counting Procedures

The Election Tellers count the votes in the presence of the Election Scrutineers.

The counting procedures are as follows:

Checking that all ballot papers are valid, printed on coloured paper, and have been stamped with a unique stamp
Tally forms are used to count, record, and verify the total number of check marks for each candidate
The tally forms are validated and checked by multiple Tellers
Online voting reports are printed during vote count
The total vote for each candidate are calculated by combining the total votes from online and on-site votes

Dispute resolution

Notice of dispute

Any complaint regarding the conduct of the election must be lodged in writing with the Election Chair at the Meeting. Such notices must be lodged no later than one hour before the scheduled time of the Declaration of the Election, as contained in the agenda of the meeting.

Only Members may lodge notices of a dispute through their authorized voting representatives.

Resolving disputes

The Election Chair shall resolve the dispute at his or her discretion. The Election Chair shall provide notice of all lodged disputes and the Election Chair’s decision at the Declaration of the Election.

Declaration of the election result

The Election Chair will announce the result of the election. This declaration will include:

The name and total vote count received by each candidate in the election
The number of valid and invalid ballots
Notice of any disputes and resolutions
Disclosure of any communication from the Election Scrutineers regarding the counting of the ballot papers