Following the restructuring of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), elections of Board Members for seats 13 and 14 will take place from now until mid-April.

According to the ICANN updated bylaws, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) council will elect the above board members.

The GNSO council is made up of 18 members representing different sectors; the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), the Internet Service Providers Constituency (ISPC), the Domain names Registrars Constituency (Registrars), the Non-Commercial Constituency, and the Business Constituency (BC).

Mr. Charles Shaban, Executive Director of Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP), was elected to the GNSO council representing the Southwest-Asia and Africa seat in the BC. It’s worth noting that the BC had 3 seats in the GNSO council representing the business community of the world.

The first round of elections started on the 13th of March 2003 and this continues until the next ICANN meeting in Rio de Janeiro on the 23rd of March 2003 to elect the board member for Seat 14. Following this stage the election process for Seat 13 will continue until mid-April.