By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON: Directors of a key Internet oversight body voted on Thursday to abandon the online elections that were originally supposed to seat half of its board, opting instead to select leadership through an appointment process.

Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, voted 15-3 at a quarterly meeting in Shanghai, China, to adopt a comprehensive reform plan they hope will put to rest long-standing questions about how the group should function and who it should represent.

But the new scheme is unlikely to satisfy ICANN's many critics, who say it will further insulate intellectual-property lawyers, Internet infrastructure companies and other ICANN insiders from the planet's 550 million Internet users.

In a conference call, ICANN President Stuart Lynn said the California-based nonprofit could now focus on managing the Internet's domain-name system, which matches up numerical addresses on the global computer network with easy-to-remember names like www.example.com.

"This is a major step forward in restructuring ICANN and making it more effective and more efficient," Lynn said. "It isn't about online voting anymore."

Internet users would still be allowed to participate in the reformed body, but board seats will be appointed by business and technical groups, and a special nominating committee that will include some public representatives. The new plan also carves out a greater role for national governments, requiring ICANN to seek governmental input on all issues that could affect public policy.

The group's original 1998 charter called for half the board of directors to be chosen by the public. An online election in 2000 filled five of the nine public seats, but was widely viewed to be a failure because of a low turnout and charges of ballot-stuffing. ICANN commissioned a task force to look into the problem, but did not follow its recommendations.

Instead, Lynn proposed a separate plan in February that has been the focus of intense debate for much of the year. According to reports from Shanghai, critics blasted the plan at an open-mike session on Wednesday. But any change would likely bring dissent, Lynn said, noting that many of the objections to the plan had been heard before.

"It sounded a little anachronistic," he said of the open-mike complaints. "There are going to be a lot of disgruntled people out there, and there are going to be a lot of gruntled people out there." An activist from a nonprofit group said he would push to make sure that the public retained some voice in ICANN processes.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say that we've gone from nine (public) seats to zero and that's a startling change," said Rob Courtney, an analyst with the Center for Democracy and Technology. "At the same time, you're in a position where what do you do? This board is not going to support that stuff, and they've made that very clear," he said.

ICANN will next meet in Amsterdam in December to determine how to switch from its current operating form to its new version. The board will determine at that time the fate of the five public representatives.

(C) Reuters Ltd.