- AFRINIC’s contested elections directly affect how IP resources are managed, impacting Africa’s digital growth.
- Cloud Innovation warns flawed governance threatens not just democracy but the continent’s internet future.
Elections that go beyond ballots
The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) is not just another corporate body. As the steward of Africa’s internet number resources, its elections are about more than selecting board members. Each vote shapes the policies that govern how IP addresses are allocated, how networks expand, and who has fair access to digital infrastructure. When elections collapse into disputes over proxies and annulled ballots, the consequences ripple far beyond the registry itself.
AFRINIC’s governance failures have already drawn harsh criticism from the Mauritian Supreme Court, which called its election rules “unworkable.” However, the registry keeps moving forward with faulty procedures, rejecting legitimate ballots and ignoring court supervision. This sequence of contentious elections has eroded confidence and raised questions about AFRINIC’s capacity to administer internet resources in Africa in an equitable and open manner.
Also read: AFRINIC reforms: Lessons from global election standards
Also read: How AFRINIC election issues affect African ISPs and startups
Policy decisions at stake
Unlike typical boardrooms, AFRINIC’s leadership holds real influence over critical internet policies. The ability to expand networks can be impacted by decisions about IPv4 allocations, which are valuable and rare. Whether Africa to advance in connectivity or lag further behind will depend on policies around IPv6 deployment. These policy choices run the risk of being dominated by a limited number of players in the absence of fair and transparent elections, marginalizing national networks, startups, and smaller ISPs.
Cloud Innovation, AFRINIC’s third-largest member, has argued that this governance collapse undermines the bottom-up model of internet governance. Instead of inclusive participation, flawed elections hand power to entrenched interests, threatening both transparency and equity.
The need for credible governance
For Africa, this is about more than internal disputes. A failed registry harms the continent’s standing in forums for internet governance and lessens its influence over global policy. Securing Africa’s digital future, ensuring fair resource management, and maintaining its voice in the global internet ecosystem all depend on restoring the legitimacy of AFRINIC elections in addition to upholding democracy.
