French Polynesia’s presidential candidate Moetai Brotherson has named four ministers in his proposed government, and confirmed he will vacate his seat in the French National Assembly.
He named two men and two women as ministers, a day after his pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party won 38 of the new assembly’s 57 seats in the territorial elections.
The assembly is all but certain to make him the president once it meets later this month.
He said 29-year-old Jordy Chan, who has a top position in the port of Papeete, will become the works minister in a 10-member government made up mainly of women.
Brotherson said the party’s secretary-general Vannina Crolas will be the minister in charge of the public service.
He said the cost of government will decrease, vowing that nobody will earn$US$23,000 a month, which he said was paid to the outgoing chief of staff at the presidency.
Brotherson said Mereana Reid Arbelot has confirmed she will succeed him in the French National Assembly.
She was listed as his substitute when he was re-elected last year but after getting a top job in civil aviation, she was initially reluctant to quit for the parliamentary job in Paris.
Tavini founder Oscar Temaru, who topped the Tavini list despite not seeking another term as president, hailed the victory, saying his party would serve everybody.
“The Ma’ohi people today is aware of its right to sovereignty. It is aware that they have the right of ownership over all the resources of the country. It’s been years since it’s been cheated, but that time is over,” he said.
The Tapura leader and outgoing president Edouard Fritch said despite the Tavini victory, a majority of French Polynesians favoured autonomy.
“Polynesia would enter into the next five years in a difficult moment,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Louis Mapou of New Caledonia sends congratulations to the Ma’ohi independence party Tavini Huira’atira for their electoral victory in the Assembly of FrenchPolynesia.
There are now pro-independence presidents in both Noumea and Papeete.
Union Calédonienne to Tavini said: “The time has come for New Caledonia, French Polynesia and even Wallis and Futuna – the last three French colonies in the Pacific – to unite and promote their interests amidst the geopolitical manoeuvres for which the Pacific is the latest theatre.”
Daniel Goa, President of Union Calédonienne – the largest independence party in NewCaledonia – also sends congratulations.
Goa acknowledges the support of Tavini Huira’atira’s Oscar Temaru and Moetai Brotherson in the lead up to New Caledonia’s self-determination referendums.
SOURCE: RNZ PACIFIC/PACNEWS
