[NCSG-EL-REF] Gender and regional balance

[Tapani Tarvainen]

Our charter says (§3.1) that

"To the maximum extent possible, no more than two (2) NCSG GNSO
Council Representatives can be declared resident of the same
geographic region as defined by ICANN. Reasonable efforts should be
taken to recruit nominees so that all geographical regions may be
represented by the NCSG GNSO Council Representatives. Reasonable
efforts should also be taken to ensure gender balance and in no
circumstance should there be fewer than 2 members of any gender."

As I read it the balance requirements, in order of strength, are:

(1) no fewer then 2 of any gender;
(2) no more then 2 of any region;
(3) all regions should be represented;
(4) genders should be balanced (3-3).

The first is given as an absolute. But if there aren't enough minority
gender candidates at all, leaving a slot empty doesn't fulfill it any
better. What we can do, however, is to make the imbalance as temporary
as possible. There's no way in our charter to remove a councillor once
elected, but same effect can be done by using temporary alternates:
leave it to the EC to hunt down a minority gender alternate while
appointing majority ones for only short periods in the meanwhile.

So, below's a draft procedure for managing balances and breaking ties.

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In council election:

1. Candidates are sorted by vote count. If electing N first ones would
not result in fewer than two representatives of either gender or more
than two of any region in the council, they shall be elected.

2. If there would be fewer than two of either gender, minority gender
candidates shall be elected over majority gender ones until there'd be
two of them in the council. If there're multiple minority gender
candidates available, those satisfying the two-per-region limit shall
be given first priority, then ones from otherwise non-represented
regions, after that the ones with most votes.

3. If there are not enough minority gender candidates to achieve the
required minimum of two, their slots shall be left empty, to be filled
by the Executive Committee with temporary alternate appointments, with
the proviso that majority gender representatives may be appointed for
a maximum of one month at a time until a minority gender one can be
appointed.

4. If there would be more than two of any one region and there are
candidates from less-represented region, the slots over two for the
overrepresented region shall go preferentially to a candidate from a
region that has no representative at all, after that to one that has
only one. More than two councillors from one region shall be
acceptable only in case there are no candidates left from other
regions.

5. In event of a tie, minority gender and region shall be given
priority as above until the requirement of at least two of each gender
and at most two per region are satisfied. After that, priority shall
be given to any otherwise non-represented region, then to minority
gender representative. If tie still remains unresolved, winner shall
be determined by lot.

6. In case there are some 1-year and some 2-year slots to be filled,
2-year slots shall be given to those with most votes from the set
determined by rules above.

******

Comments, suggestions for improvement (including how to make the
language simpler) would be most welcome. Note also that there are some
points that could arguably be resolved differently; e.g., if we're
faced with a choice of 3-3 gender balance but none from one region or
4-2 gender and all regions represented, these rules favour the latter.

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen