14 Apr 2010

French Polynesia assembly delayed by bomb scare

1:14 pm on 14 April 2010

French Polynesia's assembly is about to start its scheduled sitting after this morning's bomb scare.

An anonymous call prompted the assembly premises in Papeete to be evacuated and the scheduled sitting to be deferred.

This comes after a fraught session late last week which saw the opposition's Oscar Temaru win the assembly presidency.

The process of choosing a new assembly president unravelled the ruling coalition whose candidate, Gaston Flosse, secured less than a quarter of the votes.

The election coincided with a demonstration against the political instability.