[Chapter-delegates] Petition against the ChAC Steering Committee Elections Results 2026
Denaya Dennis
denayadennis at gmail.com
Mon Nov 17 02:22:56 PST 2025
Dear Elections Committee,
As a candidate from ISOC South Sudan , I second the petition presented by
Eng. Alphonse requesting for clarity on the results of the elections.
*Kind Regards,*
*Denaya Dennis*
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* Skype*: denny.dennis1
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On Mon, Nov 17, 2025, 12:54 PM Christine Saegesser via Chapter-delegates <
chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> Dear Alphonce,
>
> Thank you for your message. We fully agree that it is fundamental for the
> ChAC Steering Committee elections (and any other community elections,
> including chapter leadership elections) to be conducted in an open,
> transparent and inclusive manner, with clear rules and guidelines. We are
> confident that this was the case for this year’s ChAC SC elections and
> will be working with this year's ChAC SC Nominations and Elections Chair,
> Agang K. Ditlhogo from Botswana (and previous ChAC SC member herself), to
> share more details in response to your petition.
>
> Here some quick initial reactions to your points below:
>
> *1. Use of exact terminology: *
> Thank you for pointing this out. This is important indeed and we will make
> sure to revise the wording of these messages for future election processes.
> In the meantime, let me clarify:
>
> - The ChAC Steering Committee candidates were *nominated* (or
> self-nominated) by the current ChAC representatives
> - The ChAC representatives then voted (on behalf of their chapter) to *
> elect* the 9 ChAC Steering Committee members
> - *No one was appointed or selected* in this process and we apologise
> for the misleading terminology used. We will make sure to revise the
> wording of these messages for future election processes.
>
> *2. Request for additional details surrounding the elections: *
> We will work with the Nominations and Elections Chair on the best way to
> share more details about the election outcomes, participation rates, etc.
>
> *3. Technical error with some of the “regret” messages. *
> This is weird and I apologise for any confusion this may have caused. I’ll
> work with the team to ensure we understand what happened to avoid similar
> errors in the future.
> The list of ChAC SC members elected is the following, as communicated via
> the chapter-delegates list on 11 November:
>
> - Regional representative North America - Joel Templeman (Canada
> Manitoba Chapter)
> - Regional representative Europe - Jordi Domingo-Pascual (Spain
> Catalonia Chapter)
> - Regional representative LAC - Flávio Rech Wagner (Brazil Chapter)
> - Regional representative Africa - Maud Adjeley Ashong Elliot (Ghana
> Chapter)
> - Regional representative APAC - Dr. N. Sudha Bhuvaneswari (India
> Chennai Chapter)
> - Regional representative Middle East - Heba Sayed Ahmed (Egypt
> Chapter)
> - Non-geographical representative - Alejandra Stolk (Venezuela Chapter)
> - Non-geographical representative - Katarina Gevorgyan (Armenia
> Chapter)
> - Non-geographical representative - Thilina Dhanushka Kalahe Pathirana
> (Norway Chapter)
>
> To ensure diversity, the candidate with the most votes from each region
> has been elected as the regional representative, the three candidates with
> the next highest vote counts were elected as non-geographical
> representatives. The aim of this process is to ensure diversity (see also
> the ChAC Charter
> <https://www.internetsociety.org/chapters/chapters-advisory-council/charter/>).
> There will be no difference with regards to their role on the Steering
> Committee itself.
>
> We hope this helps and will be in touch with Agang, the ChAC SC
> Nominations and Elections Chair for additional details.
>
> Best,
>
> Christine
>
> *Christine Saegesser Baethge,* Sr. Director Chapters and Special
> Interest Groups
> saegesser at isoc.org
>
>
> Discover what we’re proud of in our 2019-2024 Impact Report
> <https://www.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Impact-Report-2019-2024.pdf>
> ❤️
> Give a gift of opportunity. Donate today <https://bit.ly/3nUsQmJ>.
>
>
>
>
> On 16 Nov 2025, at 17:38, Alphonce Odhiambo via Chapter-delegates <
> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
> Dear Elections committee.
> My name is Alphonce Odhiambo , ISOC Kenya Chapter President and Chapter's
> ChAC Representative.
>
> Kenya Chapter participated in the just concluded ChAC Steering Committee
> 2026 elections and based on the provisional results the following
> conflicting observations that requires clarification has been made
> as follows;-
>
> 1. The use of terms , *Appointed and Selected *as quoted below is in
> contrast to the expected terms like *Elected. *According to our
> observation this means that apart from Chapter participating in Elections,
> some backdoor exercises were done which include Appointing Selecting
> members in various positions without clear provisions.
>
> ---Ref 1
>
> *The polls for the 2026 Chapters Advisory Council Steering Committee (ChAC
> SC) elections closed on November 6, 2025. This election filled nine
> positions on the Steering Committee: one representative per region and
> three non-geographical representatives.*
>
> *To ensure diversity, the candidate with the most votes from each region
> has been appointed as the regional representative, while the three
> candidates with the next highest vote counts were selected as
> non-geographical representatives.*
>
>
> *--End ref 1*
> 2. The elections committee has not tabled before the ChAC members the
> election outcome that gave birth to the given names. We lack numbers and
> statistics that can describe the final results; the questions we are asking
> as very simple; How many many Chapters participated ? How many reminders of
> ballots were sent? How many ballots were opened? How many Chapters voted?
> How many did not vote? What was the individual candidate score? At the
> start of the voting, how secure was the voting system (what can prove that
> it was transparent, verifiable and accountable and tamperproof) ?
>
> 3. We noticed that emails sent to candidates informing them that they did
> not win had errors and individual candidates received emails that were not
> meant for them - for instance, I received regret emails sent to other
> candidates. Another email was also sent claiming that it was a system error
> or confusion.
>
> ---Ref 2
> Hello,
> I want to apologize for a technical error in the previous message: the
> name in the greeting (“Dear [Name],”) was populated incorrectly due to a
> technical error. I’m sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
>
> Please note that the content of the message is still accurate: the
> election results as communicated remain correct.
>
> Thank you for your understanding,
> Rama
> --- End Ref 2
>
> ----------------Ref 3:
> Dear Abdou,
>
>
>
>
>
>
> * Thank you sincerely for your willingness to serve on the 2026 Chapters
> Advisory Council Steering Committee. While we regret to inform you that you
> were not among the nine elected candidates this year, we deeply appreciate
> your commitment and interest in supporting the Council’s work. Your
> dedication to the community and to advancing our shared goals is valued,
> and we hope you’ll consider standing as a candidate in the future. The
> official announcement of the election results will be shared with all
> chapter leaders by 11 November.*
>
>
>
>
>
> *With gratitude, Agang K. Ditlhogo*
>
> *Chair, Nominations and Elections*
>
>
>
> *Rama Rejman*
>
> *Community Compliance and Governance Specialist, Community Engagement*
>
> *Internet Society*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Dear Alphonce, Thank you sincerely for your willingness to serve on the
> 2026 Chapters Advisory Council Steering Committee. While we regret to
> inform you that you were not among the nine elected candidates this year,
> we deeply appreciate your commitment and interest in supporting the
> Council’s work. Your dedication to the community and to advancing our
> shared goals is valued, and we hope you’ll consider standing as a candidate
> in the future. The official announcement of the election results will be
> shared with all chapter leaders by 11 November.*
>
>
>
>
>
> *With gratitude, Agang K. Ditlhogo*
>
> *Chair, Nominations and Elections*
>
>
>
> *Rama Rejman*
>
> *Community Compliance and Governance Specialist, Community Engagement*
>
> *Internet Society*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Dear Ashirwad, Thank you sincerely for your willingness to serve on the
> 2026 Chapters Advisory Council Steering Committee. While we regret to
> inform you that you were not among the nine elected candidates this year,
> we deeply appreciate your commitment and interest in supporting the
> Council’s work. Your dedication to the community and to advancing our
> shared goals is valued, and we hope you’ll consider standing as a candidate
> in the future. The official announcement of the election results will be
> shared with all chapter leaders by 11 November.*
>
>
>
>
>
> *With gratitude, Agang K. Ditlhogo*
>
> *Chair, Nominations and Elections*
>
>
>
> *Rama Rejman*
>
> *Community Compliance and Governance Specialist, Community Engagement*
>
> *Internet Society*
>
>
> *---End Ref 3 *
>
> Generally we need to have ISOC which is transparent, inclusive and open
> with clear Standard Operation Standards especially at the higher levels
> (Regional and Global) so that local chapters can emulate best practices and
> standards set from the top levels.
>
> How we expect our local Chapters to behave and act otherwise if they can
> clearly see, copy and paste some of these gaps.
> As Kenya Chapter and in my position as Candidate, I do not acknowledge the
> results until the above concerns are addressed with utmost clarity and
> honesty based on factual data.
>
> --
> Kind Regards,
> ------------------------------------
> Eng. Alphonce Odhiambo.
>
> Founder,
> GONLINE AFRICA
> www.gonline.africa
>
> President,
> Internet Society Kenya Chapter.
> *_____________________________________*
> *---Confidentiality, Integrity, Accountability---*
>
> Money is a by-product of the value you add to the society
>
> *+254 740216370, +254 100 393 693*
> LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/eng-alphonce> | Twitter
> <http://www.twitter.com/Eng_alphonce>
> _______________________________________________
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>
> _______________________________________________
> As a Chapter Leader, you are automatically added to the Internet Society’s
> Chapter Leaders Community Group and the Chapter Delegates e-list, which is
> regularly synchronized with the Internet Society Chapter Portal (AMS):
> https://community.internetsociety.org.
> The Internet Society has a legitimate interest to communicate with its
> chapter leaders, you will therefore remain subscribed for the duration of
> your term and will be unsubscribed automatically when your term ends.
> Please note that the archive of this list is publicly accessible and may
> be viewed by anyone. By submitting information to this list and
> contributing to the communications, you acknowledge that the contents will
> be publicly visible.
> View the Internet Society Code of Conduct:
> https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/
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> Unsubscribe:
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