Hi, Tijani,
The awswer to your question: Basically, yes. That is,
when ALAC faces a tie during the selection of its Board Director, or other
positions generally in principle, the ALT will be delegated to make the
selection on behalf of ALAC.
The justification of this includes:
- When there is a tie, all the tied candidates are equal
representations of ALAC.
- The ALT is democratically elected with full representation
of all regions, cultures and, presumably, various interests.
- ALT members are elected due to their experience and
contribution to ICANN's mission, who should also be most capable to make the
best selection among candidates.
- As the ALT will be making the selection on behalf of
all of ALAC, the process should be open to all ALAC voting members
(not beyond). Thus, the selection made by each ALT member in this
process will affect the support he/she receives during later elections of
the ALT. This will in turn put a "lid" on any possible blackbox deals
which will be the safeguard for our democratic principle.
- We at ALAC are merely representatives of ALSes, or of the
end-users in the world (maybe to a lesser extent regarding NomCom selectees
like me). Thus, as they elected and delegated us to make selections on
their behalf, it would also make sense to extend the same principle to the
ALT in the case we cannot effectively make a selection.
Furthermore, as Alan pointed out, it is possible, even
likely, that tied-candidates be ALT members themselves, and even the
chairperson him/herself. So be it. I don't think anywhere in the
world's elections prohibit a person to vote for him/herself. Based on
the above same arguments, he/she has received enough support for the
position during the "general" election process, and is thus well
deserved. Thus, he/she moving to the Board will vacate the ALT
position, maybe even the chairperson position, for new blood. Also, as
he/she gets the position as desired, I am sure that he/she will work
even harder to contribute to ICANN's mission.
Of course, before ALT selects on behalf of the
whole ALAC, how many rounds of tie-breaking need to take place is up to
debate. As I am not familiar to the current process, I am sure
that, with so much wisdom in ALAC, a process to bridge the gap between
the current process and the future one could be designed. However,
again as Arrow's Nobel-prized Theorem has proven, especially as the Board
Member selection process has been a "long and painful" one so far, a certain
degree of "dictatorship" ("democracy-based dictatorship" to be exact) has to
be there as a last resort.
Thank you, and thank you all.
Best regards,
Kaili
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 8:58
PM
Subject: Re: [ALAC] Explanation of RoP
Director voting alternatives
Dear
Kaili,
Do you propose that in the selection of the Board
Director selected by At-Large, when we face a tie, we delegate the ALT to
decide which one should be dropped????
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tijani
BEN JEMAA
Executive
Director
Mediterranean Federation of Internet
Associations (FMAI)
Phone:
+216 98 330 114
+216 52 385 114
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
I have followed this discussion with interest but also
confussion. It seems to me that different options have different
pros, cons and possible outcomes.
As a matter of fact, this reminds me of Arrow's
Impossibility Theorem, basically saying that democracy can only go so
far, and may not necessarily lead to a fair outcome acceptable by
everybody. In that case, some degree of "dictatorship" is
warranted. This is why republics are established, as well as why
the presidential race between Bush and Gore was finally decided by the
Supreme Court.
Thus, in our case, when a tie has appeared, I suggest to
delegate ALT to decide who will represent ALAC at the position.
After all, the ALT is elected by all of us thru a fully democratic
process. Good enough. In the case that even the ALT cannot
decide, the chairperson of ALAC will make the final
decision.
I believe this process is highly executable, and is also
fully democratic to its limit.
Being the most junior member of ALAC, just expressing
some of my thoughts for your
consideration.