Tahiti finance minister Laurey resigns

2:50 pm on 22 February 2017

French Polynesia's president has now confirmed that the finance minister Nuihau Laurey has tendered his resignation effective tomorrow.

Nuihau Laurey, vice-president of French Polynesia

Nuihau Laurey Photo: AFP

This comes a day after Radio 1 reported that Mr Laurey submitted his resignation to the president Edouard Fritch whose team initially denied the report's accuracy.

Mr Fritch said Mr Laurey's resignation had nothing to do with internal tensions and that he would have kept him on.

By law Mr Laurey cannot remain the finance minister beyond September because since last year he has also been one of the territory's members of the French Senate and there is a limit on how many offices he may hold.

Economic minister Teva Rohfritsch will take over the finance portfolio.