4 May 2013

Tahiti campaigning in final day

4:50 am on 4 May 2013

Campaigning in French Polynesia ends tonight before a mandated cool-off day preceding the election of a new 57-member assembly.

The leaders of the three parties contesting the run-off had a final televised debate in Tahitian last night.

Walter Zweifel reports from Tahiti.

"Gaston Flosse, Oscar Temaru and Teva Rohfritsch are each desperately vying to come first as the winning list will secure 19 bonus seats at stake under the new electoral system. Their pre-election commitments appear to rule out any possible coalition, which means there won't be a repeat of the 2008 outcome when Mr Flosse and Mr Temaru formed a coalition that lasted just over a month. Mr Flosse's Tahoeraa is favoured to win after its first round success when it won 15 percent more votes than Mr Temaru's Union For Democracy."