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    Home » AFRINIC’s election collapse: Courts overruled, ICANN intrudes
    AFRINIC election 2025
    AFRINIC election 2025
    Governance Bodies

    AFRINIC’s election collapse: Courts overruled, ICANN intrudes

    By Cassie GongJuly 4, 2025No Comments5 Mins Read
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    • AFRINIC’s court-approved election was annulled over one disputed proxy, sidelining hundreds of verified votes and legal oversight.
    • ICANN continued pressuring AFRINIC despite court rejection, raising concerns about international interference in African internet governance.
    • Community members call for transparency and recognition of annulled results, warning external influence is eroding trust in AFRINIC’s legitimacy.

    African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC)’s 2025 board election was supposed to be a turning point. After three years without formal leadership, the vote was meant to restore governance and credibility to Africa’s sole Regional Internet Registry. Instead, it exposed a deepening conflict between judicial authority, international pressure, and domestic political intervention, plunging the continent’s internet governance into further uncertainty.

    Read more: AFRINIC election suspended, hundreds unable to vote

    The election the court approved, but AFRINIC cancelled anyway

    In early 2025, the Mauritian Supreme Court placed AFRINIC under receivership and authorised a court-supervised election. The court approved the receiver’s election timeline, acknowledged the legitimacy of resource members and proxy processes, and gave judicial backing to proceed.

    On 23 June, voting began as planned. Hundreds of members, including many represented via notarised proxies through Number Resource Limited, cast their votes. Just before polls closed, however, the election was suspended due to concerns over one disputed proxy. A few days later, the court-appointed receiver announced the annulment of the entire process.

    Despite the court’s clear mandate for an election, its own supervised process was halted by internal actors. No court order demanded annulment. Yet, its authority was quietly sidelined, and the path to restoring AFRINIC’s governance was again obstructed.

    Read more: The story of AFRINIC: How Africa’s internet ideal was destroyed from within

    ICANN ignored the court’s rejection and pressed on

    While the court attempted to stabilise AFRINIC through a legal process, ICANN entered the fray with its own demands. On 19 June, just days before voting began, ICANN filed an application asking the Mauritian court to replace the nomination committee and delay the election. The court dismissed the request, ruling that ICANN lacked legal standing and criticising its interference.

    Despite this judgment, ICANN proceeded to publish an open letter to AFRINIC members on 26 June. It raised concerns about election transparency and threatened a compliance review. These warnings, coming after the court’s dismissal, raised questions about ICANN’s respect for regional legal processes.

    Observers noted that ICANN’s statements cast doubt on an election that had been legally sanctioned. By doing so, ICANN appeared to challenge the court’s authority and inject confusion into an already fragile process. The contradiction between local legal rulings and ICANN’s continued involvement undermined confidence in both the process and the outcome.

    Read more: AFRINIC elections 2025: ICANN is ‘inappropriate’, ‘unreasonable’ and ‘irresponsible’

    Ministerial interference undermines court oversight

    Further disruption came from within Mauritius. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MoICT) reportedly intervened to stop the release of election results. AFRINIC is a private non-profit company operating under judicial oversight, not a public agency. The ministry’s actions, therefore, directly contradicted the court’s supervisory role.

    This interference set a concerning precedent. If ministerial pressure can override court-authorised corporate governance, AFRINIC may no longer function as an independent institution. The combination of political involvement and internal procedural breakdown blurred the lines of accountability, weakening the registry’s autonomy.

    How AFRINIC’s legitimacy has been affected

    The annulment of the 2025 election left AFRINIC adrift—no board, no resolution, and no roadmap forward. The vote had been widely supported by members, many of whom lawfully submitted notarised proxies. Yet all ballots were discarded, despite the absence of any public evidence of systemic fraud.

    Members aligned with the Number Resource Society argue that cancelling the entire election over a single disputed proxy was not only disproportionate, but also deeply damaging. AFRINIC, once a symbol of Africa’s digital self-determination, now appears captured by opaque decision-making, outside interference, and legal ambiguity.

    Read more: AFRINIC election: 2nd attempt to delay voting fails

    What’s next for governance: Transparency or further erosion

    Restoring trust in AFRINIC requires more than rescheduling an election. Some in the community believe that recognising the annulled results, even temporarily, would offer a clearer path toward restoring internal direction. At a time when AFRINIC urgently needs leadership, restarting the process may delay the very stability it seeks.

    Calls for transparency are growing louder. The Number Resource Society, representing hundreds of legally notarised proxy votes, has urged AFRINIC to publish the full results and a verified list of proxies. One disputed proxy should not have erased an entire election.

    If external actors like ICANN or government ministries continue to outweigh the voices of AFRINIC’s own members, confidence in the process will continue to erode.

    The Supreme Court has extended the deadline for a new vote to 30 September. The path forward depends on whether AFRINIC will respond to its members or remain entangled in outside pressure. The future of its legitimacy rests not in procedure alone, but in the will of the community being respected.

    Afrinic ICANN NRS
    Cassie Gong
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    I am a community engagement specialist at BTW media focusing on company profiles, exclusive interviews and podcasts, industry networking events, sustainability, and AI. A graduate of Newcastle University, UK, with a Master’s in Translating & Interpreting, I now work across Europe and Asia. Got ideas to share with our global tech audience? Reach out at c.gong@btw.media—I'd love to connect!

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