Victory for Henry

POLITICS Cook Islands

By Christine Hatcher

BETWEEN 9am and 6pm on March 24, 1994, 85.9 per cent of the 11,750 Cook Islanders eligible to vote, went to the polls.

By 10pm that night, re-election for Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Henry, following a landslide unequalled in the country’s electoral history, was certain.

Before long, the main road on either side of his beach house was blocked with cars, trucks and motor-bikes. The sound of their horns competed with the fast beat of victory drums. Cheering, elated party supporters, many wearing light blue tee shirts with the slogan ‘Together we will make it EVEN better!’ poured onto the section, decorated with coloured lights for the occasion. All wanted to be the first to congratulate the man, whose energy behind the Cook Islands Party had advanced their parliamentary majority from 18 to 20 seats.

While campaigning, the charismatic Sir Geoffrey, confident of securing a second term, never once considered defeat. “Actions speak louder than words,” he said. Mostly predicting a 22-seat majority, at times he joked about collecting all 25. “Many, many people including those from within my party have made the observation that they have never seen the party so strong as it is now,” he said.

With a choice of 66 candidates, 45.3 per cent voted CIP, 20.7 per cent backed Alliance, the youngest party led by the controversial Norman George, and 15.4 {ier cent supported the Democrats with eader and former prime minister Sir Thomas Davis. Col

lecting only 73 votes

against 414 to CIP, 168 to Alliance and 203 to Independents in the Tupapa elec torate caused the

76-year-old poli

tician to lose heart.

On hearing the re sults, he resigned. In dependents collected 4.5 per cent of the votes.

A national refer endum was held sim ultaneously and had, by the 25th, con firmed that people wanted blue, the present flag colour, not green. The fta tional anthem, Te Atm Mou E was to be kept. The Overseas seat was to remain. A

fortunate choice, given that Cl P’s Dr Joseph William took the seat from Democrat laveta Arthur, with 295 votes to 122. The retention of the country’s name was favoured by 3984. Only 1723 preferred a Maori word. Interestingly, while the majority (2559) supported the present five-year term of parliament, 1586 voted for three years, and 1980 for four. Indications from the combined total of 3566 is that the majority is ready for a change.

In contrast to the euphoria of victory

night, the pre-election period was often

clouded by negative international and local Press attention.

The Alliance Party dropped a bomb shell in early March by publishing The Book of Shame. The booklet printed documents stolen from ECIL Ltd, the government body overseeing the con struction of the NZ$lO5 million dollar Sheraton Hotel. (Although still incom plete, the structure represents almost half the national debt. Started in October 1991, progress has continually faltered because of various loan difficulties and problems with Italian construction com panies. A financial stalemate stopped work in June last year). The book shows massive Diners Card spending by ECIL staff. A side agree

ment in which the

contractor, Stephany

Spa was to pay ECIL a total of DM7.7 million, is cited. Re prints of the docu ments show this sum was made up and payable in cash for the award of the con tract and “for any prior works to be incorporated in the Contract Works”.

Vincent Ingram, chairman of ECIL and recently ap pointed Cook Islands High Commissioner in Australia, is shown in the booklet as spending NZ599,021.96 be tween January and June last year. Pay ments

Well done: Sir Geoffrey receives a congratulatory hug

Jubilation: Sir Geoffrey (centre) surrounded by well-wishers after his re-election

are itemised under accommodation, restaurants, vehicles, miscellaneous and travel on first or business class. Five theatre tickets for two of London’s West End shows total NZ$ll79, the book says.

His wife and other employees, some of whom are relatives of Ingram’s, are also named. In reply, the PM announced that government would take legal action against the Alliance Party and expressed disgust over the theft of the documents.

He said the court would show why there was so much travel. “I mean, when you are dealing with discussions with hotels, financiers and people like the insurance companies ... you have to have your FFE expert who is the man who assists in the selection of colour, type of chairs, carpet, curtains and so forth and colour schemes and you’ve got to have your interior designers who are the two people you rely on specifically for that, he said at a Press conference.

Speaking from Canberra, Ingram con demned the book and defended the side agreement saying it had been needed when a second Italian construction company took over the Sheraton project from another firm which collapsed.

In the meantime, at parliament in Wellington, leader of the New Zealand First Party, Winston Peters, accused officials of the past and current Cook Islands government of being “agents of corruption”. He gave details of an offshore tax deal and called for NZ aid and funding to be cut off. All three party leaders denied the allegations. One week after the elections, it was announced in the Press that both Inland Revenue and the Serious Fraud Office in New Zealand could find no evidence of crime. How ever, tax commissioner David Henry said his staff found blatant tax avoidance which cast little credit on the business ethics of the designers. Damage to the offshore industry, the country’s largest income earner after tourism, has been incalculable.

On the local front, the Democrats were sharpening their knives. The candidate for Murienau and director of auditing in 1987, Richard McDonald, alleged that the false tax certificates at the centre of a New Zealand High Court case go back further than the last five years. He claimed he investigated a possible tax scam at the time against his own government under Sir Thomas Davis and lost his job because of it. However, McDonald said he could not provide proof. He later lost the seat to Cl P’s Tom Marsters who collected 358 votes against McDonald’s 33. Throughout, the poten tially ruinous allegations seemed not to rufile Sir Geoffrey’s composure. He

simply continued to campaign for politi

cal stability and leadership, refusing to

be drawn into the battle. Instead, he claimed to stand for sustained economic growth, development within a strong, vibrant business community and tourism sector. He said in the end, the allegations would work in reverse. Instead of turning people against the party, he said, support would increase. And he was right. □

Victory: the prime minister after hearing he had won