French Polynesia's Tahoeraa Huiraatira has comfortably won the elections for a new 57-member assembly, paving the way for the return of Gaston Flosse to the presidency.
It won just over 45 percent of the votes, defeating the ruling pro-independence Union For Democracy of Oscar Temaru, which secured just under 30 percent of the votes.
By coming first, the Tahoeraa won the 19 bonus seats at stake, introduced with the new electoral system to end the political instability of the past nine years.
Unofficial results give Tahoeraa 38 seats and the Union for Democracy 11 seats.
The Union For Democracy claimed that electing Mr Flosse with his criminal convictions will bring shame on the territory, but the Tahoeraa's deputy leader, Edouard Fritch, says this is not so.
"The bad image of French Polynesia is the image of what happened since 2004, all that change in the government and all that difficulty we have had to build the economy of this country."
Edouard Fritch says rebuilding confidence will be a key task to revive the economy.
