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French Polynesia Leaders Retain Municipal Strongholds

Tuesday: March 11, 2008

(Oceania Flash)

French Polynesia's key leaders have at the weekend retained their strongholds after the first round of the French municipal elections.

As a result of the first round of voting on Sunday in Pape'ete, the clearest outcomes were that key leaders such as Temaru and Tong Sang have been re-elected Lord Mayors of their respective strongholds, Faa'a (near the capital Pape'ete) and Bora Bora.

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In Faa'a, Temaru obtained a staggering 65.19 per cent of the votes, according to official results published by the French high commission in Pape'ete.

This is his sixth mandate at the helm of the second largest municipality in French Polynesia.
In Bora Bora, Tong Sang has received the support of 61.02 per cent of the suffrages.
They secured an absolute majority and therefore do not need to run in a second round of voting in two weeks.

Pape'ete Lord Mayor Michel Buillard also emerged a clear winner with 57.87 percent of the votes.

However, in other towns and communes, such as Pirae (near Pape'ete), Edouard Fritch (who is the President-delegate of former territorial President Gaston Flosse's Tahoeraa Huiraatira) and Beatrice Vernaudon (a dissident from Tahoeraa and now with Tong Sang's To Tatou Ai'a) will have to run again in two weeks.

There are 48 municipalities in French Polynesia.

In Mahina, former government minister Emile Vernaudon seems to have received a clear sign of support from his electorate with some 27.75 per cent of the vote.
Vernaudon has been unable to campaign in person since he has been remanded in jail for the past three months as part of an investigation into abuse of public funds.

The municipal vote was also closely scrutinized in the wake of another poll that took place last month, that time to renew the French Pacific territory's legislative assembly.

The general elections resulted in an unlikely coalition being formed between two former Presidents and party leaders, Gaston Flosse and Oscar Temaru.
Their alliance left another former President, Gaston Tong Sang and his To Tatou Ai'a party, sidelined although he had secured the largest number of seats (27) in the 57-member House.

In this context, analysts regarded the municipal elections, in two rounds (March 9 and 23), as a sort of "fourth round".

But it seems that in casting their ballots at the weekend, French Polynesians have also clearly separated the territorial and the more local, municipal issues.
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