The two who would be boss in Tahiti

By ANGELA GREGORY

It is calm in Tahiti, some say suspiciously calm, and a legal ruling expected any day about this year's general elections in French Polynesia could bring simmering tensions to a head.

Two men claim the presidency. Pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru and pro-French leader Gaston Flosse have locked horns in a messy power struggle enmeshed in legal challenges all the way to Paris.

The French State Council, France's highest administrative body, is expected to make a ruling shortly on legal disputes behind the impasse.

Temaru's supporters want new elections and Flosse is asking for election results to be set aside only in the Windward Islands (Tahiti and Moorea) where his party suffered a surprise defeat in the May elections.

There are concerns that if the ruling goes against Temaru's Tavini Huiraatira Party uprisings could break out, with a repeat of destructive riots in 1995 where the Papeete international airport terminal was torched.

Temaru, a one-time Auckland freezing worker, was ousted from power on October 22, only five months after he was voted in as President.

In May the Union for Democracy, a coalition of parties headed by Temaru, had garnered 27 seats in the election and eventually gained 29, enough for a majority.

Flosse's Tahoeraa Huiraatira party had won 28 of the 57 seats, one short of a majority.

The French Government threatened to cut off funding to French Polynesia, population about 270,000, if Temaru was elected and about 120 gendarmes were flown in before the presidential vote to head off any violence.

The territorial assembly voted in Temaru as President in early June.

France annexed the five archipelagos of 118 islands and atolls which lie midway between Australia and South America about 200 years ago. It retains control of foreign relations, security and defence, money supply and some aspects of the justice system.

Flosse, 73, had ruled French Polynesia for all but four of the past 20 years since the territory was granted autonomy by France in 1984. He appealed to the French courts for the annulment of the May polls.

Flosse claimed that the June 3 election of the assembly's leadership was rigged and a decision to set June 10 for the presidential vote was illegal.

Further ructions then saw the delicate balance of power shift back to Flosse, who led censure motions after Temaru proposed an audit of the previous Government.

Last month Temaru's Government lost two motions of censure by one vote, made all the more dramatic when a knife-wielding man lunged at Flosse.

More than 15,000 Temaru supporters staged a peaceful protest march through the capital's streets and France flew in security forces.

Flosse was voted in as President on October 22.

In defiance, Temaru and his supporters began a hunger strike and occupied the presidential grounds at Papeete. They say they won't move until France dissolves the assembly and fresh elections are called, requests which Paris has so far rejected twice.

The French Minister for Overseas Territories, Brigitte Girardin, said last week the Government would now wait for the State Council ruling to rule on the legitimacy of the May elections before considering the dissolution of French Polynesia's legislative assembly.

Temaru's supporters allege there has been French interference in favour of Flosse, an old friend of President Jacques Chirac. That claim has earned them some sympathy in France.

The opposition Socialist Party in Paris has said Chirac should bow to Temaru's request for a fresh general election to resolve the crisis.

Flosse argues his is the legal and rightful Government, and he should be recognised as President. He has cut the telephone lines to the occupied presidential offices and asked Paris to intervene and order Temaru out.

Temaru has described the situation as unstable but has been urging calm. In 1995 he restored order to Papeete by persuading protesters to go home. He was a leading critic of the French nuclear testing programme, which ended in 1996.

This year he assured Paris he was not rushing French Polynesia towards independence but saw it as a gradual process to be decided by the people, possibly taking decades.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff has said the situation in French Polynesia is worrying as frustration could grow in a situation where constitutional process appeared to be in chaos.

Flosse would find it difficult to maintain a stable government with a majority of just one, he predicted.

Victoria University's head of political science, Professor Stephen Levine, said it was a complicated situation. Two ideologically opposed positions were evolving and the areas of difference had narrowed.

Levine said Temaru was soft-pedalling towards independence while Flosse had moved towards achieving a greater degree of self-rule for French Polynesia.

In February France amended its constitution to allow French Polynesia to become a country within a country. Levine said such moves, however, did not mean political animosities between the rival parties were any less intense.

One reason Temaru did well in this year's election was because Flosse's recognition of French Polynesia's distinct society and culture in effect weakened criticism of Temaru as a dangerous force.

Levine said that although the democratic process had put Temaru into power, a legal process and parliamentary procedure had since removed him.

"Oscar Temaru and his people were not terribly skilful at operating from a position of power."

They had given Flosse the opportunity to regroup and take power back in a short period of time.

Levine said Temaru's orders into the investigation of the previous Government's spending were seen as threatening. "He moved too quickly, clumsily."

Levine said politicians who came into power after being in opposition too long and rapidly opened things up for public disclosure were politically naive.

The situation, meanwhile, became tense when to the wider public perception parties that had been booted out in an election were suddenly back in, especially given the past disturbances in French Polynesia.

"Because we are talking about throwing out a power group that has been trying to get in a long time, that is something that is not going to be easily accepted ... every group has its breaking point."