back to article Africa's internet body in full-blown meltdown: 'None of the above' wins board protest vote

A protest vote against corporate mismanagement at Africa's main internet body has sent the organization into freefall. Following the poor handling of a sexual harassment scandal that eventually led to the resignation of its chair and vice-chair, members of Afrinic asked for a vote of no-confidence in the organization's entire …

  1. DJV Silver badge

    Blimey!

    Are they actually more incompetent than Nominet? Wow!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Blimey!

      "the three board seats were won by "None of the above" by: 97 votes to 80; 78 votes to 43 and 56; and 97 votes to 79. In each case, the result is listed as: "The seat is vacant.""

      I can only assume lots of non Africans get to vote somehow? Or the bribe pot has run dry?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Blimey!

      Why didn't they just fake the election results? They are not short of expertise.

  2. Ole Juul

    at least they're competitive

    I didn't realise until now that AFRINIC was actually competing with ICANN for the title of most dysfunctional registry.

  3. anothercynic Silver badge

    Ahhhh Africa...

    The joys of the continent's political messes even extend to t'internet. Lovely.

    1. Grikath

      Re: Ahhhh Africa...

      And this is different from the USA how, currently?

      1. handleoclast

        Re: Ahhhh Africa...

        And this is different from the USA how, currently?

        In both the USA and Africa, elected officials are corrupt.

        In both the USA and Africa, the public expect elected officials to be corrupt.

        In Africa a slightly higher percentage of the population aspire to becoming a corrupt elected official (much as people elsewhere aspire to winning a lottery jackpot, and for similar reasons) and a slightly lower percentage deplore corrupt elected officials. In Africa it tends to be more open, in the USA there are token attempts to hide it, such as this.

        The UK isn't much better.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Ahhhh Africa...

          "The UK isn't much better."

          Well actually it is. It's 10th on the CPI corruption index versus the USA on 18th. And UK politics are vastly less influenced by corporate and minority money and lobbying.

          Just for reference a typical third world / black country like Nigeria is at 136.

  4. Nolveys
    Windows

    None Of The Above

    The "None Of The Above" slot should be necessary on all ballots.

    Also, first-past-the-post should never be used.

    1. Nick Kew

      Re: None Of The Above

      First past the post is Good. But the system Blighty calls first-past-the-post isn't: there's no post to pass. The Single Transferable Vote (see for example steve.apache.org) puts a 50% post in it, and ensures winners do really have more support than losers - as opposed to votes being wasted or manipulated.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: None Of The Above

        "But the system Blighty calls first-past-the-post isn't: there's no post to pass"

        Yes there is. The post to pass is to get the majority of the vote.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: None Of The Above

      "Also, first-past-the-post should never be used."

      First past the post does have the advantage of commonly eliminating tiny minority parties. That tend to commonly be ethnic or religious in focus.

      1. david 12 Silver badge

        Re: None Of The Above

        >First past the post does have the advantage of commonly eliminating tiny minority parties. That tend to commonly be ethnic or religious in focus.<

        And that commonly has the effect of radicalizing the disenfranchised parties, and encouraging them to work for the destruction of the system.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: None Of The Above

          "And that commonly has the effect of radicalizing the disenfranchised parties, and encouraging them to work for the destruction of the system."

          However they never succeed, and generally everyone just ignores them. Like the Lib Dems for instance.

    3. jelabarre59

      Re: None Of The Above

      The "None Of The Above" slot should be necessary on all ballots.

      It is in all Libertarian Party elections. And the LP advocates it should be implemented in all government elections too. Sounds like it's the only smart thing Afrinic has done lately.

      1. handleoclast

        Re: None Of The Above

        Sounds like it's the only smart thing Afrinic has done lately.

        Only half-smart. The smart option is "Re-Open Nominations" (aka "RON"). With that option they wouldn't be in the mess they're in. Still a mess, because (theoretically) nobody would be authorized to hold a second ballot, but an improvement. Better still would be RON with a temporary reprieve for the current board until successful appointments. But that would be vulnerable to ballot-rigging (stuff the boxes with RON votes every time to get permanent power). That could have been improved upon by handing off electoral control to some independent third-party.

        So only half-smart. Smart enough that it was possible to get rid of the bastards, not smart enough to get their replacements in place.

        And yes, RON should be on every ballot.

  5. Nick Kew

    Democracy

    So Africa - with its short and patchy history of any attempt at democracy - has come to a more honest outcome than broken systems in many more developed parts of the world.

    try {

    elect a decent ruling body;

    }

    catch (they're all scum) {

    #ifdef AFRINIC

    None of the above;

    #else

    Declare the biggest crook the winner;

    #endif

    }

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Democracy

      i have a feeling there was no error trapping by AFRINIC on their thinking

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Democracy

      Here in the UK we must have been using a Symbian device.

      No exception handling; just Leave.

  6. James O'Shea

    Hmm

    So the board has complete control, including over elections to fill seats, eh? I wonder what would happen if the board met to fill the vacant seats and there was a small accident involving 250 kg of dioxgen difluoride? Or perhaps chlorine trifluoride? I’m not advocating any such thing, of course, just wondering out loud.

  7. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Assets?

    "Those assets include several IPv4 address blocks worth millions of dollars on the open market"

    I think you might find that those assets are worthless unless the rest of the internet agrees to route stuff to and from whoever you choose to dish them out to. If a credible rival registry appears tomorrow then I think they will have de facto ownership of those blocks rather than leaving them in the hands of former board members of an organisation that its own stakeholders want to, er, stick a stake into.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Assets?

      "unless the rest of the internet agrees to route stuff to and from whoever"

      There isn't much agreement required. You would just publish the BGP routes.

      1. rg287

        Re: Assets?

        There isn't much agreement required. You would just publish the BGP routes.

        That's what BGP filtering is for. The rest of the internet could block off those blocks.

        Ultimately AFRINIC don't own any IP addresses. IANA does. And in an extreme circumstance, IANA could reallocate them. Though that would need to come with stipulations on maintaining all current sub-allocations (subject to review by the new RIR) so as to not knock Africa offline.

  8. Woza
    Joke

    Open invitation

    Want to join the board? Change your name via deed poll to "None of the above".

  9. FrankAlphaXII

    Sounds like Africa, I'm surprised they're not blaming colonialism and loudly declaring how they'll never be Colonies again while being colonized by the Chinese, expropriating /8 blocks without compensation and then blaming the people they're stealing from.

  10. TrumpSlurp the Troll

    Sounds just like the UK

    Family lived there for generations but if your skin isn't the accepted colour you are obviously an immigrant and not a real resident.

    I wonder what Africa's version of Windrush is?

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: Sounds just like the UK

      " if your skin isn't the accepted colour you are obviously an immigrant and not a real resident."

      well, maybe not in SOUTH Africa...

      but yeah if they've got some racism built into their politics, it's ALSO a problem [tolerance of sexual harassment maybe being a symptom of bigger issues?]

      Don't get me wrong, being FALSELY accused of any kind of harassment happens all of the time, too. So the claims have to be PROPERLY verified (i.e. not 'trial by fake news'). "Scandal alone" is NEVER a reason to be fired or forced to resign. That being said, too many people will cave in under the pressure instead of FIGHTING BACK.

      Regardless, the accuser may NOT be a victim. That, in my mind, is an equal possibility to an actual case of sexual harassment. "#MeToo" can easily become a way to jam an agenda down people's throats. Ironic, though, how MOST of the perps are on 'the left'.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sounds just like the UK

      "Family lived there for generations but if your skin isn't the accepted colour you are obviously an immigrant and not a real resident."

      That's the view of most people I know too. Especially if an obvious believer in that religion that thinks a known paedophile was a prophet, even though it's demonstrable that he just ripped off a lot of his material from early Christianity and spiced it up a bit. Who it turn ripped off many of the concepts of Judaism. Except for writing their holy book on a toilet roll...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sounds just like the UK

        >>That's the view of most people I know too

        You should get bonus points for managing to rub the noses of a minority and 3 religions in their own self-righteousness in one post!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sounds just like the UK

      You are more right than you realise.

      The root of the problem is tribalism, if you are not from the right tribe then you are out. The same as the middle east and North Africa.

      This mess sounds very similar the the East African Airways mess. It was originally run by BOAC, then given freedom of the market, it flourished opening routes over Africa, and serving the grass strips of the hinterland. At one point it had a regular service to the UK.

      Then came Africanisation, and within one year a healthy profit moved to a loss, passenger numbers actually increased during this time, but freebies to the boards friends and families went from zero to sky high...

      This brought the company down within two years. It has been restarted.

      And some people call me racist!

  11. NanoMeter

    Mismanaged Africa

    Are there anything in Africa that aren't mismanaged?

    1. find users who cut cat tail

      Re: Mismanaged Africa

      Is anything anywhere?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like