ICANN waves hands in protest at AFRINIC election arrangement

Worries lawyers overseeing poll may have disqualifying entanglements

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has called for changes to the roster of officials appointed to oversee the forthcoming election at the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), the latest twist in a conflict that stretches back years and has left the African regional internet registry in limbo.

AFRINIC is one of the world’s five regional internet registries, the governance bodies that delegate and manage IP addresses and autonomous systems numbers in co-ordination with ICANN.

The African organization has essentially been dead in the water, operating without a board or CEO since 2022. The problems started in 2020 when AFRINIC alleged that one of its members – a company called Cloud Innovation – had breached its agreement with the registry in ways that could lead AFRINIC to reclaim the company's IP address holdings.

Cloud Innovation countered that AFRINIC acted improperly and launched multiple lawsuits in Mauritius, the Indian Ocean nation the registry calls home. Other parties also sued AFRINIC for similar reasons. The lawsuits left AFRINIC’s bank accounts frozen and meant it was unable to convene a board or run elections.

In February 2025, the Supreme Court of Mauritius appointed a receiver to secure AFRINIC’s assets and reconstitute its board.

A new shareholder

On April 4th, Mauritius’ Corporate and Business Registration Department (CBRD) altered its record [PDF] for AFRINIC to reflect the appointment of a new shareholding member: Cloud Innovation.

It's not unusual for a receiver to appoint a litigant to the board of the company they’ve sued, to ensure a plaintiff can express their concerns.

Cloud Innovation CEO Lu Heng reportedly told South African outlet My Broadband his company’s listing as an AFRINIC member is “an administrative formality born of the legal process, not a hostile takeover or power grab.”

Election called

On April 21st, the receiver announced an election for AFRINIC’s board would take place on June 23rd. The receiver also appointed a Nomination Committee consisting of four UK-based barristers to oversee the process of securing and vetting nominees, and to manage the external company hired to run the election.

Now ICANN is registering its objection to the whole thing. In a June 6th post titled “ICANN Calls for Transparency and Fairness in AFRINIC Board Elections” the regulator asked the receiver for more information about Cloud Innovation’s new status as an AFRINIC shareholder member, and expressed its belief some members of the Nomination Committee may not be suitable.

ICANN’s post lists the following two “concerns” about AFRINIC:

1. The unique registration of a company as a member of AFRINIC in the Mauritius Corporate and Business Registration Department (CBRD) despite clear inconsistencies with AFRINIC's governance documents and past practices. AFRINIC has over 2,000 resource members, and all of them should have been afforded the same treatment in advance of accepting nominations.
2. The appointment of two members to the Nomination Committee who had previously issued an opinion supporting the registration of the same company as a member of AFRINIC.

As no other company has become a member of AFRINIC for years, The Register believes the company ICANN referred to in its post is Cloud Innovation.

The Register asked ICANN for more information about its concerns with the Nomination Committee members. The org sent us the following statement:

After we were granted formal access to some filings, that we are not authorized to share publicly, we discovered reference to an opinion identified as having been provided by two of the three persons who were later appointed to the nomination committee.

We are not at liberty to share more details.

We do not know if there is a conflict, nor are we disparaging those individuals

However, we are asking for those two members to be replaced for the remainder of the duties of the nominating committee to remove any perception of impact.

Those duties include the planned June 9th publication of a list of approved candidates, then overseeing electronic voting from June 16th to 23rd and an in-person voting event in Mauritius on June 23rd.

In the end, ICANN is relatively powerless in the situation. The receiver and AFRINIC appear not to have responded to ICANN's suggestion, as on Monday the registry published list [PDF] of candidates approved by the Nomination Committee.

The Register sought comment from the receiver, Cloud Innovation, and Larus Limited – an IP address broker that partners with Cloud Innovation and shares its CEO – Lu Heng.

None had responded to The Register at the time of writing. ®