Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN's board, told reporters this week that the panel already has "had a reasonable exchange of papers with the GAC" and that he's not clear how the board will vote. "I dont speak for them," he said.
But Thrush noted that ICM's long battle in getting the sTLD approved could be derailed during a "clarifying process" over what GAC's advice is.
"We will have had consultation with the GAC, and we will have worked through the understanding what the GAC's advice is," he said. "There's always the possibility I guess that we'll have difficulty with that."
Nonetheless, Thrush said previous .XXX votes in the past and the one coming up this Friday have been and will be controversial.
"Historically, those votes have been reasonably interesting," he said. "They've been quite close, raised substantial issues, and it's one of those topics I think after which where board members want to speak after the vote about their rationales for their decisions."