The Ghost Assembly

From a Vila correspondent The political stalemate in the New Hebrides continued into May as controversy still engulfed the election of four chieftains to join the 38 other members of the con dominium’s first Representative Assembly.

Although territory-wide elections were held last November, the Assembly still had not met in early May and it was even suggested that there might be no meeting until an of ficial register of the population could be established and new elections held by universal suffrage.

In statements published in April, the victorious group in the November elections the National Party claimed that it was their demand for independence by 1977 that was delaying a calling together of the Assembly. The National Party criticised French policy in its overseas territories, in the Pacific especially, and accused the British Government of passively tolerating French policy in the New Hebrides.

The French authorities have suggested the selection of eight, instead of the originally proposed four, chieftains in the new Assembly. There have been moves to have Nagriamel leader Jimmy Stevens included as a chief, but this is opposed on the grounds of his mixed ancestry. When a meeting was called by the British and French authorities for elected representatives to meet informally, without the chiefs, to discuss the chiefs’ situation on April 29, the National Party announced it would not take part.

Under a special “soup” recipe that the French are most skilled at concocting, the 42 seats of the Representative Assembly are allocated to 29 members from all electorates, three French and three British from chamber of commerce members, three more from “economic interests” to represent co-operatives, and finally four chieftains.

When the predictable confusion ensued with Assembly membership still unresolved, the Noumea press in late April quoted UCNH party leader Remy Delaveuve recently returned from Paris as suggesting that at the worst the New Hebrides might wait for the current registering of the population to be completed, for new elections by universal suf frage.