Tahiti's Tahoeraa stands to lose more members

7:44 am on 14 July 2017

French Polynesia's formerly dominant Tahoeraa Huiraatira Party is poised to lose more members after already being weakened by a split.

The Tahoeraa, which won 38 of the assembly's 57 seats in the last election, has suspended a member Gilda Vaiho who was reportedly considering leaving the party.

Media reports say her possible departure could trigger further resignations.

Last month, the party lost its most senior assembly member, Marcel Tuihani, who resigned from the Tahoeraa but stayed on as the assembly president.

He quit jointly with his father who had been a decades-long party treasurer over policies determined by the party president Gaston Flosse.

Flosse is barred from holding office because of a 2014 conviction and suspended jail sentence for corruption.

Since he lost office, the party had shed about half of its members who have since formed the ruling anti-independence coalition led by Flosse's former deputy Edouard Fritch.