- A threat from ICANN has turned the 2025 AFRINIC elections from an exercise in operational improvement, to one of existential survival.
A letter from the CEO of ICANN, Kurt Lindqvist, to Gowtamsingh Dabee, the Official Receiver in place at AFRINIC, the internet registry for Africa, should alarm anyone who thinks the rightful place for Africa’s IP address administration is in Mauritius.
That letter tells us one thing clearly: it is essential that this election be recognised and the democratically elected board reconstituted, so that AFRINIC can navigate the challenges it clearly still has ahead of it.
In his extensive five-page letter dated June 25, 2025, Lindqvist cites ongoing events at the AFRINIC board elections 2025 to threaten AFRINIC with a compliance review. “Due to the shocking allegations and complaints of conduct surrounding the AFRINIC Board of Directors election, with this letter ICANN is formally putting AFRINIC on notice that a compliance review may well be necessary,” Lindqvist writes.
Read more: AFRINIC election suspended, hundreds unable to vote
Could AFRINIC undergo a compliance review?
A compliance review would evaluate the functioning of AFRINIC against criteria set out in a document ratified only a few months ago, in December 2024, entitled ‘Implementation and Assessment Procedures for ICP-2 Compliance‘. That was the same month Lindqvist was officially employed as CEO and President.
ICP-2 is the document that details what RIRs need in order to be set up, but does not detail what they need to do once they are operating. This new document seeks to fill that gap, and with it, ICANN has gained immense power over the RIR system.
Clause 3.4, for instance, allows ICANN to “initiate compliance activities based on its own initiative…” in “…situations where ICANN reasonably believes that a Subject RIR puts the secure operation of the Internet’s unique identifier systems at risk”.
This is exactly what Lindqvist is threatening to do with this letter, and one can only expect that should a review take place, the outcome would not be favourable to AFRINIC, or indeed the internet operators and lawmakers in Mauritius, which has enjoyed ownership of Africa’s internet registry system since 2004.
Should ICANN decide AFRINIC is operationally inadequate, it would no doubt also seek to start a new RIR in a new country, for a fresh start.
Which is exactly why the elections that should have taken place on June 23 before they were suspended are so important not just for the resource holders in Africa, but for Mauritius itself, as the seat of Africa’s internet administration.
Read more: AFRINIC elections 2025: Everything you need to know
Last chance for Mauritius’ internet administrators
The election has been long-sought for the key operational reasons of improving effectiveness, removing inefficiencies and corruption and for getting the RIR back on its feet.
Now it seems the election is essential for the very survival of the RIR, and why the suspension of the election could be a death blow to this essential Mauritian organisation.
Without an elected board in place (it cannot be appointed) there would be no defence against ICANN’s damning review process, which given ICANN’s stance to date on AFRINIC operations, would almost certainly find the RIR was incapable of complying with the required standards. In that case, the RIR has two weeks to respond to ICANN’s allegations, for ICANN to consider.
However, should the non-compliance findings be serious enough, there is a clause that allows ICANN to deregister the RIR without any response from the RIR.
For that reason on its own, the Mauritian officials should feel duty-bound to aid the survival of this important Mauritian institution, allow the elections to be recognised, get the board in place and allow them to defend the organisation against this threat.
One option: Another AFRINIC election next year
Yes, there were yet more controversies during the elections. But those can be contested later. Not everyone will like it, but this election needs to be recognised and the results need to be accepted, to allow a democratically elected board to be reconstituted and navigate the challenges AFRINIC clearly still has in front of it.
Perhaps this board could even be an interim one, charged with ensuring the survival of the RIR not only against internal mismanagement, but now against external threats too. Then, in a year’s time, an AGM could take place and a proper election that complies with all Mauritian bylaws could establish a permanent board.
Read more: ICANN’s role in AFRINIC elections faces scrutiny, claims of interference
This letter from ICANN has turned this election, and whichever board members are seated, from an exercise in operational improvement to one of existential survival.
This is a new era in internet compliance, and one in which it appears ICANN increasingly holds the cards, something that started under Lindqvist when he became CEO and President in the same month the compliance document was ratified (December 2024).
No doubt Lindvist feels he is taking on a campaign that many agree with. The deficiencies in AFRINIC have been plain to see for many years. But for Mauritius and all the people who have nobly continued working to ensure the functioning of the operations while management shenanigans and legal warfare took place, this would be a dismal end to a hard-fought fight.
