ICANN Declines to Open Itself to Global Elections

The group that oversees the Internet’s domain-name system said individual users should have a voice in the organization but declined to open itself up to global elections.

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, said the 500 million people who use the Internet should be given a formal role in helping oversee the system that guides e-mail and Web browsers around cyberspace.

But ICANN would not approve a new round of elections in November, effectively killing any direct public role for the time being and putting the fate of nine of its 19 board seats in doubt.

“ICANN is not a global democracy,” said M. Stuart Lynn, the organization’s president, in a conference call with reporters.

ICANN declined to say how it would balance the interests of Internet users with those of other groups, such as businesses and technical experts. Instead, the board told a committee to come up with a specific plan for reform by the end of May.