Dear ccNSO members, This is to inform you about the status and next steps for the 2020 ccNSO Council elections. In accordance with the approved timeline, the nomination period for the ccNSO Council closed on Tuesday, 15 October 2019, 23:59 UTC. The nomination archives can be found here<https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/ccnso-nominations/>. In accordance with the applicable rules, the following candidates were nominated, seconded and have accepted their nomination for the ccNSO council election: Africa: Souleymane Oumtanaga Asia-Pacific: Atsushi Endo, Ai-Chin Lu Europe: Giovanni Seppia Latin America – Caribbean: Alejandra Reynoso North America: Stephen Deerhake Next steps: Africa, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean, North America As only one candidate was nominated and seconded within the nomination period for the African, European, Latin American-Caribbean and North American regions, no elections need to be held in those regions. Since at the close of nominations there are no more valid candidates in the aforementioned geographic regions than there are seats on the ccNSO Council available for those regions, the nominated candidates shall be selected to serve on the ccNSO Council. Next steps: Asia-Pacific For the Asia-Pacific region, in accordance with the applicable rules, two candidates were nominated, seconded and have accepted their nomination. Consequently, an election will be held - according to the timeline previously agreed upon by the ccNSO Council - among the ccNSO members from the Asia-Pacific region. * Election opening and closing: As per the timeline<https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/timeline-nominati...> approved by the ccNSO Council, voting starts on Tuesday, 19 November 2019 (00:01 UTC) and closes on Tuesday, 3 December 2019 (23:59 UTC) * Election procedure: The vote will be by confidential email. Voting ballots will be sent to the e-mail address of the primary contact of each ccNSO Member from the Asia-Pacific region, as listed in the ccNSO Members database. As per the relevant ccNSO guideline<https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/guideline-ccnso-c...>, new ccNSO members are able to participate in the process if the ccNSO membership application has been approved by the ccNSO Council one day prior the nomination process starts, i.e. latest on 23 September 2019. Since the election is for one seat, each ccNSO member will be entitled to vote for up to one candidate. You can vote an unlimited number of times, but only the last vote submitted will be counted. Contact Joke Braeken (joke.braeken@icann.org<mailto:joke.braeken@icann.org>) if you have questions or concerns regarding the e-mail address of the primary contact for your ccTLD. Further details about the election procedure will be shared closer to the start of the elections. Q&A Session with the candidates at ICANN66 A Q&A session will be held at the upcoming ccNSO Members Meeting at ICANN66 in Montréal, Canada. This Q&A session will provide the ccNSO members and broader ccTLD community an opportunity to interact with the candidates. Consult here<https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=111391889> the agenda and remote participation details of the ICANN66 ccNSO Members Meeting. The session chair is ccNSO Councilor Biyi Oladipo (.ng). In preparation of the Q&A session, the written candidate statements, possible other material shared by the candidates and this announcement will be posted on the ccNSO website. Consult the candidate statements, if any, in attachment to this email. Conclusion The Election Manager will prepare the Election Report for the 2019 ccNSO council elections for consideration by the ccNSO Council, latest on Tuesday, 17 December 2019, after closure of the run-off elections, if any. The Council Election process 2020 will formally close 7 days after adoption and publication of the Election Report. The term start of the appointed Councillors will be at the conclusion of ICANN67 in Cancun. Background In March 2020, at the conclusion of ICANN67 in Cancun, the 3-year term of the following ccNSO Councillors ends: * Souleymane Oumtanaga (Africa) * Hirofumi Hotta (Asia-Pacific) * Giovanni Seppia (Europe) * Alejandra Reynoso (Latin America/Caribbean) * Stephen Deerhake (North America) The nomination and secondment procedure to fill those seats started Tuesday, 24 September 2019 (00:01 UTC) and closed Tuesday, 15 October 2019 (23:59 UTC). Links * Start nominations and secondments: Consult here the announcement<https://ccnso.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-23sep19-en.htm> for details on the requirements for candidates, the acceptance of nominations, and next steps * Consult the announcement regarding the closure of the call for nominations here<https://ccnso.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-16oct19-en.htm>. * 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://ccnso.icann.org/en/workinggroups/timeline-nomination-election-2020-2...> Best regards, Joke Braeken ccNSO Policy Advisor joke.braeken@icann.org<mailto:joke.braeken@icann.org> Follow @ccNSO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccNSO Follow the ccNSO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ccnso/ http://ccnso.icann.org