Hebrideans' gallery

Playing to New Hebrideans' gallery

From a Vila correspondent The court of disputed returns in the New Hebrides handed down its decision on May 10 in Vila to annul the election of four candidates elected to the con dominium's first Representative Assembly last November. Three of the four can didates had lodged an appeal by late May. They were all members of the National Party majority Mrs Mary Gilu (Urban Santo), and Thomas Ruben and Titua Path, who together with the fourth candidate, Michel Thevenin (Manh- Nagriamel Party) were from the Rural Santo Electorate. The Santo Rural results had been contested by Jimmy Stevens in particular.

Appeals would go to the Joint Court in Vila, which would necessitate Mr Justice Davis from the Solomons sitting with French Judge Cazendres. The elec tion decision came almost six months after the voting in November and was hand ed down on the eve of the departure from Noumea of French High Commissioner in the Pacific, Mr J. G. Eriau, who left for talks in Paris.

Meanwhile, the show to “amuse the gallery” put on a new act in Vila on April 29 when Remy Delaveuve’s UCNH party called for 10 New Hebridean chieftains to be elected to the Representative Assembly, instead of the four originally intended under the murky “soup” of an electoral system cooked up by the authorities. Disputes over the designation of the chiefs has “conveniently” provided the stumbling block to calling together the condominium’s first Assembly, where the independence-seeking National Party would hold the ma jority.

When the British and French authorities called for an informal meeting of assembly members on April 29 to discuss the stalemate, only 14 of the 38 elected came to talk. They were 10 members of the UCNH (Union des Communautes des Nouvelles Hebrides), one member of Manh-Nagriamel and three of the nine members representing not political parties but “economic interests”. Also atten ding the gathering were eight men representing Hebridean chiefs and invited by

Ucnh.

The CNH initiative of porposing 10 chiefs in the assembly seems to be turn ing the limelight from Jimmy Stevens in Santo onto Remy Delaveuve in Vila, both men stars in the French realm. Remy Delaveuve was in Noumea some months ago reportedly studying the workings of the Noumea municipal council as a model for Vila’s first municipal council, where he is mayor. Since then he has been to Paris and was quoted in the Noumea press as suggesting that the New Hebrides may not have an assembly until new elections can follow an official register of the population, currently being prepared which gives the authorities more time to orchestrate the next act.