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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Alan Davidson, CDT Email: abd@cdt.org Phone: 202-637-9800
Don Simon, Common Cause | or | Ari Schwartz, CDT Email: ari@cdt.org Phone: 202-637-9800
Jeff Cronin, Common Cause |
CAIRO, EGYPT, March 10, 2000 - Public interest groups today praised steps taken to improve the procedures for an unprecedented global election expected to take place later this year to select board members for one of the Internet's central management organizations.
Common Cause, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), and the Carter Center expressed their appreciation for the actions taken to improve the elections to be held by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the group tasked with managing certain crucial Internet domain name and numbering functions.
Friday Morning the ICANN Board of Directors voted to change its current election rules and allow members of ICANN to directly elect new At-Large board members in an election to be held online later this year. Direct elections were a key recommendation in a report on ICANN's elections issued earlier this week by Common Cause and CDT.
Common Cause and CDT presented a set of concerns and recommendations to the ICANN community at its public meeting on March 9. The recommendations were developed through a three month investigation of the At Large election process, which included consultations with participants in the ICANN process and elections experts.
Scott Harshbarger, President of Common Cause, said, "By deciding to allow ICANN's members to directly elect new At-Large board members, the stage is set for ICANN to pioneer the procedures for holding open and democratic elections on an international basis in the new on-line world of the future. We applaud ICANN's decision to move in this direction."
Jerry Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said, "ICANN is charting a democratic course. Direct elections give voters a real voice in ICANN's decision making. Today the ICANN Board listened to the serious concerns raised by the ICANN community, and adopted principles that will improve the fairness of its elections. This is a defining moment for ICANN, and CDT was pleased to be part of the process."
"We were very pleased to be able to participate in the upcoming global on-line election. Hopefully, we added some useful insights learned from our own international election experiences throughout the world in more than 30 countries," said Charles Costello, a senior staff member at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
"We congratulate the ICANN board for taking steps today to improve public participation in ICANN in the manner suggested by the CDT/Common Cause report," said Andrew Shapiro, senior advisor to the Markle Foundation. "We are confidant that ICANN will succeed in incorporating many of the report's recommendations into an improved at-large membership and election process."
For more information about the ICANN elections and other related policy issues, please visit http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/study/.
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The Center For Democracy & Technology 1634 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20006 (v) 202.637.9800 (f) 202.637.0968 Contact CDT Copyright © 2005 by Center for Democracy and Technology. |