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→GAC Early Warnings & Response
DCA's bid for .africa recieved 17 [[GAC]] Early Warnings, which are noted as strong recommendations on behalf of national governments to the [[ICANN Board]] that a given application should be denied. [[UniForum SA]]'s [[Registry.Africa]] bid received no such warnings.
DCA's bid for .africa recieved 17 [[GAC]] Early Warnings, which are noted as strong recommendations on behalf of national governments to the [[ICANN Board]] that a given application should be denied. [[UniForum SA]]'s [[Registry.Africa]] bid received no such warnings.
On December 5th 2012, DCA, via its CEO [[Sophia Bekele]], responded to the [[GAC]] Early warnings as recommended by ICANN remediation procedure. It was presumably sent not only to each objecting GAC member but the the [[ICANN Board]] as well. The letter addresses each aspect of the original warnings and its number of points include:
* All of the GAC Early Warnings are similar or identical and therefore imply that the respective governments did not independently decide to object but were "were teleguided (or manipulated) into submitting these GAC Early Warning Advice, and as such,
cannot really be considered as authentic in most cases." DCA also notes that even governments that still had standing support for the DCA bid, such as Kenya, issued GAC Early Warnings, further underscoring the lack of legitimate objection and substantive dialogue on behalf of the objectors.
* DCA notes that the African Union Commission (AUC) has likely consolidated the opposition to to DCA's prior protests over the AUC's desire to make .africa and its IDN versions reserved strings. This was undertaken at [[ICANN Dakar]], and Chairman of the Board [[Steve Crocker]] noted that such special reservations could not be made but that the AUC could still participate in and influence the delegation of [[.africa]]. DCA sees this as an unfounded recommendation on the part of ICANN for the AUC to follow specific objection procedures.
* DCA refutes the process by which [[UniForum SA]] were selected as the AUC backed candidate. It argues the process, which has been described as an "open RFP", was not fair and open and that then Chairman of [[AfTLD]], [[Vika Mpisane]], made the recommendation unilaterally. Going on to say that "nepotism, cronyism, abuse of office, and influence-peddling played a huge role in the appointment of UniForum." They go on to ask the AUC to release full-details about the RFP, including who applied, how they were evaluated, and the final rankings and approval minutes related to the decision.
* DCA argues that the AUC should not be seen as an endorsing entity given that it is, in essence, a co-applicant in the [[UniForum SA]] bid.
* DCA claims that if the AUC wants to unilaterally speak for the African "community" then it should have submitted a [[Community TLD|community based application]].<ref>[http://www.dotconnectafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Response-to-the-ICANN-GAC-Early-Warning-Advice-against-the-.Africa-Application-Submitted-by-DotConnectAfrica-Trust.pdf?goback=%2Egde_1840166_member_204519856 Response to the ICANN GAC Early Warning, DotConnectAfrica.org] Published 5 Dec 2012, Retrieved 15 Jan 2013</ref>
'''The whole response can be read [http://www.dotconnectafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Response-to-the-ICANN-GAC-Early-Warning-Advice-against-the-.Africa-Application-Submitted-by-DotConnectAfrica-Trust.pdf?goback=%2Egde_1840166_member_204519856 here].'''
==Background==
==Background==