AFRINIC · RIR Watchdog
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BTW reporting and context linked to this RIR. For the proposal-by-proposal history, the people involved and their changing positions, start with Policy.
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The Deadline Had Two Doors
On 26 June 2025, a Mauritian court turned AFRINIC’s stalled return to ordinary governance into a test with three coordinates: conduct a new election process, constitute a Board, and do both by one outer date. The discipline of Order SC/COM/MOT/000467/2025 lies not in the calendar…
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Three Days, One Election, and the Missing Logic of a Total Annulment
The Receiver’s decision to annul AFRINIC’s entire 2025 Board-election process converted an unspecified irregularity into a universal consequence. The central governance question is not whether the concern deserved attention, but what public reasoning should connect a protected…
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When a Membership Label Becomes a Ballot Gate
AFRINIC’s court-directed explanation of its member categories exposed a consequential but usually hidden junction: the point where a private corporate record becomes an input to election administration. Making that junction visible was valuable. It was not the same as proving…
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The ICANN case made the official transcript the court record
On 19 June 2025, a Mauritian court gave a digitally recorded oral proceeding a decisive procedural status: it would be the official transcript. That narrow act matters because, when institutional commitments are spoken rather than set out in a self-contained written order, the…
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AFRINIC’s Accounts Show $3.289 Million in Legal Spending. Who Authorised Each Dollar?
AFRINIC’s own disclosures put its legal spending at $3,289,408 from 2022 through 2025. The figure is not an allegation; it is arithmetic drawn from the registry’s published accounts. The unresolved question lies one layer below the totals. Which engagement, invoice, approver…
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AFRINIC’s remote-board clause can hear a quorum. It still cannot identify one
Draft Article 19.3 preserves remote Board meetings, but its test stops at a working audio channel. For an institution whose decisions can bind members, move money and restrict exit, that is not yet an evidence standard.
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When AFRINIC Could Not Authorise Itself, Company Law Supplied an Agent
Four directors could still turn up, staff could still know the work and lawyers could still know the file. None of that answered the decisive corporate question in September 2023: who could lawfully speak and act for AFRINIC when its Board needed five directors for a quorum, its…
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AFRINIC draft makes one year the line between a member election and a Board appointment
Proposed Article 13.9 would require an election when more than one year remains in a vacant Board seat, but would let the Board appoint the replacement when one year or less remains. That is clearer than AFRINIC’s current interim rule, yet the draft does not fix when the…
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AFRINIC draft opens a wide advice channel without an advice register
The proposed Article 16 would replace the Council of Elders with flexible committees and let the Board seek nonbinding input from almost any interested person or body. Its committee safeguards are detailed; its separate advisory-engagement trail is not.
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AFRINIC draft lets presence count as a yes vote unless a Director expressly dissents
A chair can be occupied without a hand being raised. Under draft Article 19.9, that presence can still enter AFRINIC’s decision record as agreement and an affirmative vote unless the Director expressly dissents or votes against. The rule is not new, but the consultation is an…
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AFRINIC retains a six-vote route to remove its CEO without making the Board’s record visible
Draft Article 17.2 leaves the existing CEO-removal power unchanged: on a full nine-seat Board, six of the eight other directors can end the appointment, subject to labour law. The same draft adds “justifiable cause” elsewhere but does not require a non-confidential reason, tally…
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AFRINIC draft adds “justifiable cause” but leaves Director removal procedure outside Article 14
AFRINIC’s proposed Article 14.1(c) would let two-thirds of all other Directors remove a Director for “justifiable cause”. The phrase improves the current Constitution, which gives the same Board-controlled route without an express cause test. Yet the draft’s explanation promises…
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AFRINIC draft keeps a three-Director fallback for adjourned Board meetings
AFRINIC’s proposed Article 19.6 starts with a normal Board quorum of at least five Directors. It then preserves a less visible rule already found in the current Constitution: after a meeting without quorum is adjourned for more than 24 hours and absent Directors are notified…
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AFRINIC draft drops the CEO nationality ban but leaves the Board to define disqualifying conflict
Proposed Article 17.3 replaces a blanket exclusion with a more defensible individual test. It still does not say what evidence the Board must use, who must recuse, what the candidate may answer, or how a disputed decision can be reviewed.
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AFRINIC draft puts employee pay behind a Board policy that members may never see
Proposed Article 17.4 adds a real budget and policy check on the CEO’s remuneration power, plus a written-delegation rule. It does not require publication, exception records, conflict controls, monitoring reports or a route for an affected employee to challenge a decision.
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AFRINIC draft creates an acting CEO office without a maximum term
Proposed Article 17.5 would require an appointment after a vacancy or temporary incapacity, but it does not say how long an acting chief may remain, whether the office carries Board Seat 9, or which removal and conflict rules apply.
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AFRINIC draft would let a no-candidate finding extend an incumbent without a member vote
Proposed Article 13.6 would turn one Nomination Committee conclusion into an immediate governance result: if no eligible candidate is available for a Board seat, the outgoing Director is automatically treated as reappointed on an interim basis. The draft strengthens NomCom…
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AFRINIC draft preserves two-thirds written Board decisions without a meeting
A Board decision can be assembled across separate documents and become as effective as one passed in a duly convened meeting. Draft Article 19.11 keeps AFRINIC’s longstanding two-thirds route for doing so. The urgent question is not whether written decisions should exist, but…
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AFRINIC draft would let one remaining director form an election-only quorum
Proposed Article 13.10 creates a narrow escape from Board paralysis: if fewer than five directors remain in office, whoever remains would be treated as a quorum solely to restore an elected, quorate Board. The safeguard is real, but the clause does not itemise “incidental or…
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AFRINIC draft keeps a Chair-triggered fast lane around the 14-day Board notice rule
Three-fourths of Directors can collectively accept shorter notice, but the same result follows if the Chairperson alone considers the business urgent. The retained Article 19.2 mechanism sends notice to every Director while leaving the minimum preparation time, urgency record and…