Dear All, On Wednesday, 30 September 2020 (23:59 UTC), the call for nominations to fill 5 seats in the ccNSO Council was closed. For each of the 5 geographic regions, at least 1 candidate has been nominated and seconded. Next steps * Acceptance nominations After closure of the nomination period, the Election Manager will ask the candidates that are nominated and seconded in accordance with the applicable rules, whether they accept their nomination. The deadline for acceptance of the nominations is Wednesday, 7 October 2020 (23:59 UTC). Following this deadline, the list of candidates will be published on the ccNSO website. * Question and answers session at ICANN69 A question and answer session will be held at the upcoming ccNSO Members Meeting at ICANN69, scheduled for Tuesday, 13 October 2020 (12:00-13:30 UTC). Session chair is Biyi Oladipo (.ng). All candidates that accepted their nominations are kindly invited to participate in the Q&A session, which will provide the ccNSO members and broader ccTLD community an opportunity to interact with the Council candidates. Please make sure to register for ICANN69 here<https://69.schedule.icann.org/>. Session Participation links will be published 24 hours in advance of the session. Consult here<https://community.icann.org/display/ccnsowkspc/ccNSO+Members+Meeting+%7C+ICA...> the agenda of the ICANN69 ccNSO Members Meeting. In preparation of the Q&A session, the written candidate statements and possible other material shared by the candidates will be posted on the ccNSO website. * Elections, if any If at the close of nominations there are no more valid candidates in a particular geographic region than there are seats on the ccNSO Council available for that geographic region, then the nominated candidates shall be selected to serve on the ccNSO Council. Otherwise, an election shall be held for that geographic region, to select the ccNSO Councillors from among the valid candidates. In such an election, a majority of all ccNSO members in the Geographic Region entitled to vote shall constitute a quorum, and the selected candidate must receive the votes of a majority of those cast by ccNSO members within the Geographic Region. Election Start Round 1 – if any: Tuesday, 03 November 2020 (00:01 UTC) Election End Round 1 – if any: Tuesday, 17 November 2020 (23:59 UTC) The ccNSO Council is expected to appoint the new Councillors after closure of the Election process and formal adoption of the Election Report. The terms of the appointed Council members will start at the end of ICANN70, in March 2021. Background In March 2021, at the conclusion of ICANN70, the 3-year term of the following ccNSO Councillors ends: Africa: Abdalla Omari Asia Pacific: Young Eum Lee Europe: Katrina Sataki Latin America/Caribbean: Margarita Valdes North America: Byron Holland The ccNSO opened a call for nominations to fill those seats as per the timeline<https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/138970351/Item%209%20-%20ti...> approved by the ccNSO Council: the nomination- and secondment procedure started on Wednesday, 9 September 2020 (00:01 UTC) and closed 3 weeks later, on Wednesday, 30 September 2020 (23:59 UTC). Links * Archive for nominations and secondments<https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/ccnso-nominations/> * Relevant ccNSO guideline<https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/guideline-ccnso-c...> * Timeline<https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/138970351/Item%209%20-%20ti...> * Announcement regarding the call for nominations<https://ccnso.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-08sep20-en.htm> The election process manager Joke Braeken ccNSO Policy Advisor joke.braeken@icann.org