- TISPA’s second legal attempt to delay the ongoing AFRINIC board elections was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Mauritius, with the judge citing late filing, lack of merit, and failure to disclose key information as reasons for rejecting the application.
- AFRINIC’s elections, critical after years without a board or CEO, are proceeding as planned, despite earlier legal challenges from both TISPA and ICANN, which have now been overruled by the court.
A second attempt by the Tanzanian Internet Services Providers Association (TISPA) to stop the AFRINIC board elections from taking place has been dismissed by the Supreme Court of Mauritius.
TISPA lodged a second appeal after its first appeal only momentarily delayed the election. That first motion was dismissed earlier this week, and the election e-voting was continued, with in-person voting confirmed to take place on June 23.
Today, June 20, a second attempt was made by TISPA to again stop the election from taking place. Also today, the same day the application was made, the judge declined the motion.
Read more: 8 men hoping to lead AFRINIC into the future
Supreme Court of Mauritius statement
The court gave the following reasons in a statement:
“(a) the application is being made at the eleventh hour when the applicant was notified since 3rd of June 2025 of the election by way of e-voting which would start on the 16th of June 2025. The applicant chose to sleep on its rights and cannot now seek the intervention of the Judge in Chambers …
“(b) the present application is devoid of merits inasmuch as all the grievances of the applicant and ICAAN have been taken care of by virtue of a Court Order, dated 19 June 2025 …
“(c) the applicant, as described in paragraph 10 of the affidavit should be aware of the communiqué of the respondents dated 19 June 2025 and has utterly failed to disclose same and as such the applicant has not come with clean hands when it is seeking the intervention of the Judge in Chambers for an equitable relief; and
“(d) the requirements to be granted an injunctive relief … have not been satisfied as there is no serious issue to be tried and the balance of convenience does not tilt in favour of the applicant in stalling an election process which had already started and of which the applicant was made aware of since 3 June 2025.
“The application is accordingly set aside.”
AFRINIC’s election interference
TISPA is not the only organisation trying to delay an election that most of the African internet community has been waiting for for the past three years. Earlier this month ICANN also applied to the Supreme Court of Mauritius with a motion to reconstitute the Nominating Committee, among other requests, citing concerns that the election was not being conducted fairly or transparently.
That motion was also dismissed by the Supreme Court on June 19, when it said such a move would unnecessarily delay the much-needed election.
Read more: AFRINIC elections 2025: ICANN is ‘inappropriate’, ‘unreasonable’ and ‘irresponsible’
Read more: ICANN’s role in AFRINIC elections faces scrutiny, claims of interference
AFRINIC elections 2025
The elections come after years of mismanagement and corruption at the Regional Internet Registry for Africa. Since 2022 the company has been operating without a board or a CEO, and though the operations staff members have been commended for continuing to work to ensure Africa’s internet businesses and users can operate, the need to establish a functioning board has been paramount.
E-voting for nominees started on June 16 and continues until June 23, while in-person voting takes place on June 23.
See more about the election process here: https://www.afrinic.net/election-process