Autonomists have
p. 27 · Read in the full issue
dean sweep in Tahiti election
Five members of French
Polynesia’s two strongest poli
tical parties had a clean sweep in a by-election for the Papeete Municipal Council on May 12.
Their victory is seen as an endorsement of the policies of Messrs. Francis Sanford and John Teariki, whose parties, with the support of one independent, control 17 of the 30 seats in French Poly nesia’s Territorial Assembly (parlia ment).
In the Assembly on May 17 the parties made it quite clear that this was their interpretation, by pushing through the Assembly, 16 to 4, a resolution asking for internal self government for Tahiti. Mr. Sanford said the bi-election showed the capital was unequivocally in favour of self government.
The Sanford-Teariki parties have campaigned vigorously in recent months for internal self-government for French Polynesia ( PIM, May, p. 18).
They have also been vehemently critical of the French nuclear testing programme at Mururoa Atoll, and have sought the release of the radical political leader, Pouvanaa a Oopa, who is serving a term of exile in France (see p. 81).
Normally, there would have been little interest in the by-election. But feeling has been running high in Tahiti’s political circles since last September when the Sanford-Teariki alliance gained control of the Terri torial Assembly (PIM, Oct., 1967, p. 25), and the by-election was re garded as a referendum on their policies.
The five successful candidates in the by-election were Messrs. Jean Juv entin. Yen Howan, Tetuaura Oputu, Robert Salvanayagam and Raymond Pietri. They stood in a “list” repre senting the Sanford-Teariki alliance, and gained 60 per cent, of the valid votes cast.