FRENCH POLYNESIA: Gaston Flosse biggest loser
Updated
In French Polynesia, Gaston Tong Sang and his five-month old To Tatou Ai'a party have won the biggest share of votes in the first round of the country's general election. Mr Tong Sang was ousted as President last year after the pro-independence party led by Oscar Temaru, and pro-France party, Tahoeraa Huiraatira lead by elder statesman Gaston Flosse, formed a defacto alliance. In a surprising comeback, Mr Tong Sang's party has won more than 36 -percent of the vote in the first round, more than three per cent ahead of Mr Temaru's Union for Democracy. The publisher of Tahiti Pacifique magazine, Alex du Prel, says Mr Tong Sang can expect even greater support in the second round on February the 10th. He says the biggest loser appears to be Gaston Flosse - with just under 22 per cent of first round votes, it appears years of infighting and corruption allegations have taken their toll.
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Alex du Prel, Tahiti Pacifique magazine
DU PREL: It means the end of the Tahoeraa which kind of destroyed himself, because it was let's say not very open party and it had been suffering since 2004 from the absolute grip that its leader Mr Flosse had on it. Mr Flosse didn't want to listen to all the advice explaining him that he was becoming more and more unpopular and despite this, he did everything to just even use phoney general assemblies where he would choose the people who would come and so on. So he not only destroyed, committed political suicide, but also managed to destroy his party, because now the party that used to represent absolute majority now holds only about let's say 25 per cent and it will be even less on the next elections.
HILL: Are you surprised by this confidence from voters in a party that's only five months old?
DU PREL: Well, it's absolutely unique in French Polynesia and it can be explained through different factors. Number one, until now the Polynesians had a habit of voting the way that the mayor would tell them to vote and this apparently seems to be not the case any more, so their making up their own minds. Also the other things is that the political memories is getting longer in French Polynesia and people remember what Mr Flosse has done in the past two years. So that has played a lot.
Also we have a whole new, we have about ten per cent new voters which are young voters, which are politically more aware than the older generation used to be.
HILL: So, that's not the case for Gaston Tong Sang?
DU PREL: Well Mr Tong Snag, actually what it is that most of the voters from the Tahoeraa or the voters of other parties who don't want to have independence have moved from the Tahoeraa to the To Tatou Ai'a, which is his new party. So it is actually another factor that influence that Mr Temaru has been a year and a half in power and has shown very bad results and people are not happy with the way he's been running the country, which it was very unprofessional.
HILL: And, you say this looks like the end of Tahoeraa. What about Gaston Flosse? Do you think the same for him?
DU PREL: No, it's his political suicide. He went one election too far, even two elections too far. And people around him, the ones that had the courage to tell him, because he's quite autocratic. The people who had the courage to tell him, he wouldn't listen and he didn't realise that the main problem of his party which he created was himself.
