7 Aug 2007

Harold Martin elected new president of New Caledonia

7:10 pm on 7 August 2007

The leader of New Caledonia's Future Together Party, Harold Martin, has been elected as the new president.

Annie Beustes of the Rassemblement UMP was elected as New Caledonia's vice-president.

This comes after last month's resignation of Marie-Noelle Themereau of the Future Together Party who stepped down after it suffered an electoral setback at the June polls to choose the territory's two members of the French assembly.

The election was boycotted by the three members of the pro-independence FLNKS movement who resigned yesterday from the 11-member executive citing a voting error in choosing it.

On Monday, the 54-member congress had proceeded to reconstitute the executive but hours later the FLNKS stepped down.