Results for Co-Coordinators’ Elections 2019-20 are announced Today, on 24th September 2019, by the Returning Officers Mr Ian Peter and Mr Tapani Tarvainen.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
We are pleased to announce the results of the IGC Coordinator Elections, which closed on September 23.
The final votes were
Bruna Martins dos Santos – 89 votes
Sheetal Kumar – 79 votes
Imran Ahmed Shah – 51 votes
We therefore declare Bruna Martins dos Santos elected for a two year term, and Sheetal Kumar for a one year term. Congratulations to all the candidates and thanks for offering their services. Terms of office start now.
As a result of the elections, 148 people have declared themselves to be members of the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus: this includes 12 who chose to vote “None of the Above”. The list of members is now available at https://igcaucus.org/igc-members-september-2019/
Further details on the election process appear below.
ELECTION PROCESS
This election had to deal with the unusual circumstance of electing two Coordinators, because of delays in holding previous elections. The results get IGC back on track where elections become an annual event to elect one Cordinator, who will work with the ongoing Cordinator who has not completed their term.
A total of 663 invitations to vote were sent: this was the total of email addresses which had been on the IGC mailing list for more than 2 months. Of this total, 148 voted: this was in line with or above expectations, as many people on the list do not identify as civil society members but have an interest in internet governance and like to follow activities here (and others choose to have more than one email address on list). By comparison, the number of voters in the last election where there was more than one candidate and a vote took place was only 99.
LimeSurvey software was used and adopted for election purposes. We wish to acknowledge the help of a small group of testers who helped us to refine the software – Norbert Bollow, Farzaneh Badii, Deirdre Williams, Peter Akinremi Taiwo, Arsene Tungali, and Chris Prince Udochukwu Njọkụ.
Invitations to vote were sent on September 11. A follow up email to those who had not yet voted was sent on September 18. Other reminders were posted on the IGC Caucus mailing list. Voting closed on September 23.
The mailing process resulted in 14 bounced emails, including 7 auto responses indicating that the mailing address was no longer in use: these will be referred to the incoming coordinators to refine the list.
One person accidentally voted twice using separate emails. One of these votes was eliminated.
The software required people to confirm their eligibility to vote by answering four basic questions:
a. that they identify as a member of civil society
b. that they have been subscribed to IGC mailing list for more than 2 months
c. that they accept the IGC Charter
d. that they have not already voted in this election (perhaps utilising another email address)
In addition to the 148 people who completed the voting process, an additional 39 people who had commenced the process determined not to continue before reaching the voting page.
The system was not preferential. All votes for all candidates were of equal value.
All in all, we believe the process went smoothly, drew a good level of participation, and helped strengthen IGC. This would not have happened without the strong groundswell of involvement from many people, reflected in the level of participation in voting and the overall interest in seeing this occur in a timely fashion. It also could not have happened without the strong preliminary work of the Tech Team, led by Imran Ahmed Shah, which restored the website of IGC, creating the basic infrastructure that allowed us to develop a voting system and conduct this exercise. They also deserve your thanks.
As determined in discussions including with the previous Coordinator, voting totals for each candidate have been released, as well as names of all those who voted and therefore are now members of IGC. In line with general privacy and GDPR provisions, other details of voters (email addresses etc) will not be released, not will details of who voted for which candidates. The detailed voting slips will be kept for a period of three months, or longer if necessary to resolve any appeals, and will then be erased. The core of the voting software will be retained for possible future use.
Ian Peter and Tapani Tarvainen
Returning Officers
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =