By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PAPEETE, Tahiti – A no confidence motion was filed this week and signed by fifteen French Polynesia Assembly representatives from three political groups.  The groups are trying to put an end to five years of chronic instability, citing the chronic political instability that has had a severe impact on the local economy, political behaviors from the past, and the wish to form a majority exempt from political division.

The motion names pro-Tahiti independence leader Oscar Temaru as candidate to replace Gaston Tong Sang as Tahiti’s president.  The assembly will vote next week on the motion, which would topple the nine-month-old Tong Sang government.  It would also mark the fourth government under Temaru’s power since 2004 and become the eighth government Tahiti has had over the past five years.

The motion is the work of Temaru’s Union for Democracy coalition, Gaston Flosse’s pro-France, pro-Tahiti autonomy Tahoera’a Huiraatira party, and Jean-Christophe Bouissou’s pro-France, pro-Tahiti autonomy Rautahi party.  The three leaders claim to represent 31 of the assembly’s 57 seats, or a three-vote majority.  The 31 seats would give Temaru the biggest majority of any of the eight governments since 2004.

The no confidence motion ended more than two months of speculation, political maneuvering, and political summits involving Tahiti’s four key political leaders.

For more information, please see:
Tahiti Presse – Tong Sang claims Temaru’s only interest is “to block Flosse” – 05 February 2009

Pacific Islands Report – Another No Confidence Motion Filed in Tahiti – 06 February 2009

Fiji Times – Polynesia Vote – 07 February 2009