16 Apr 2010

War of word dogs French Polynesia politics

3:56 pm on 16 April 2010

There is continued fallout in French Polynesia among the losing candidates of last week's election of the assembly president.

In a war of words, Gaston Flosse, who was the ruling coalition's unsuccessful candidate, says his rival, Jean-Christophe Bouissou, wanted to appear as a white knight while omitting to say he wanted the coalition to break its deals.

In a statement, Mr Bouissou has struck back by saying that next to someone with Mr Flosse's political career, any assembly member looks like a saint.

He went on to say that Mr Flosse and the president, Gaston Tong Sang, are the politicians most implicated in corruption cases.

The three leaders met today to chart a way forward, while the opposition's Oscar Temaru stayed away while reiterating his call for Mr Tong Sang to resign.