Dear All, Please find below the response from the General Counsel's Office pertaining to the questions related to the Council's elections that were posted to the Council email list earlier today. All the Best, Margie _________ Margie Milam Senior Policy Counselor ICANN _________ Hi Margie - Based on Article X, Section 3.8 of the Bylaws, The NCA appointed to CPH appears to be considered a member of the CPH. ("a. the Contracted Parties House includes the Registries Stakeholder Group (three members), the Registrars Stakeholder Group (three members), and one voting member appointed by the ICANN Nominating Committee for a total of seven voting members"). As I read the ops procedures for the GNSO, the Chair will only be non-voting if the Chair is selected from outside of the houses. Essentially, the only person who could be on the GNSO Council and outside of the houses is the non-voting NCA. Because the NCA to the CPH is a member of a house, that means that if he is elected as Chair, he will not have to give up any voting rights, and no further analysis is needed on whether it is then proper to invoke any of the vacancy provisions within the ops procedures. On the issue of whether the NCA to the CPH may vote in the election for which he is being considered as Chair, I don't see anything in the Bylaws or the ops procedure that preclude any of the candidates from voting for themselves. Each individual candidate may wish to consider if any abstention provision would be applicable to that vote, but there does not appear to be a blanket rule. In the event that the NCA to the CPH wishes to abstain from the Chair election in which he is a candidate, there does not appear to be an allowance for the NCA to select a proxy in that limited situation. Candidates who are not NCAs probably have the proxy process available to them if they wish to abstain from a vote in which they are a candidate. This last paragraph should not be read to consider that it is required for candidates to abstain in this situation - this is likely a personal decision, or the Council may have broader views on this topic. Best, Sam