The ruling coalition in French Polynesia is to meet shortly to discuss next week's re-election of the assembly leadership amid a push by the Tahoeraa Huiraatira Party to make its leader, Gaston Flosse, the assembly president.
The Tahoeraa insists that under the coalition deal reached last November it is entitled to fill the assembly presidency while the To Tatou Aia group is being given the presidency.
Walter Zweifel reports.
"The Tahoeraa leadership has warned that the issue can break the coalition. But there are a number of To Tatou Aia politicians who have expressed little enthusiasm for Mr Flosse to be made the government's official candidate for the third highest public post because of the raft of court cases he is involved in. While he has lost his parliamentary immunity as French senator as part of a corruption probe, all his convictions have been appealed. A ruling in Paris on whether he was ineligible to hold public office was due to be released a day before the assembly elects a new president but the decision has been put off until a later date."
