Dear all, We recently sent out an email to the global list with a summary of the regional provisions governing the ALAC elections and a proposed timeline for the regional elections . This email is to provide you a detailed overview of the situation in Africa and assist you with the organization of the elections. There will be one AFRALO ALAC representative up for election this year as Hawa Diakité¹s term ends at the close of the Cairo meeting. With regards to the election process, the AFRALO Memorandum of Understanding states that the length of the nomination period shall be "a reasonable period" (MOU:2) without mentioning a specific eletion date. Additionally, it states that terms shall be of one year (MOU 2) but to be in accordance with the ICANN bylaws and to allow for staggered terms, the length of the African ALAC representatives shall be set to two years. The AFRALO instruments do not contain specific provisions governing the election process. It is therefore suggested that the following election process shall be adopted : * The regional Secretariat will make a call for election no later than seven weeks before the start of the annual ICANN meeting (14 September 2008) * Nominations shall be accepted for two weeks after the Secretariat calls for nominations (until 28 September 2008) * The nominees need to accept their nomination no later than seven days after the nomination period ends (05 October 2008) * The election shall begin no later than one week after the end of the acceptance deadline (12 October 2008) and end not later than two weeks before the start of the annual ICANN meeting. (19 October 2008). In other words, votes would actually be cast between 12 to 19 October 2008. The votes would be cast via an electronic voting system (www.bigpulse.com). You are of course free to adopt a different process. To facilitate this election, we ask the AFRALO Secretariat to send us a note specifiying election procedures the region would like to adopt. Regards, Nick Ashton-Hart, Matthias Langenegger, Frederic Teboul ICANN At-Large Staff email: staff@atlarge.icann.org