Political Reviews Micronesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 michael bevacqua, monica c labriola, kelly g marsh, clement yow mulalap, tyrone j taitano Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 mary tuti baker, lorenz gonschor, margaret mutu, christina newport, forrest wade young The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 28, Number 1, 171–244 © 2016 by University of Hawai‘i Press 171 210 the contemporary pacific • 28:1 (2016) managed to get through its election- Scoop, 28 September. http://pacific.scoop year controversies despite two by-elec- .co.nz/2014/09/minister-calls-for-electoral tions still possibly in the cards. With -changes-after-cook-islands-turmoil/ the fifty-year sovereignty celebrations [accessed 9 June 2015] now underway, it is likely that further political disruptions will be pushed to the backburner until all celebrations French Polynesia have been completed. christina newport Politics in French Polynesia during the year under review was dominated by a profound leadership struggle between References veteran politician Gaston Flosse, who lost his position as president of the CIN, Cook Islands News. Rarotonga. Daily. country, and his successor and former son-in-law Edouard Fritch, who suc- Cook Islands Government. 2011. National Sustainable Development Plan, 2011– cessfully freed himself from his former 2015: The Cook Islands, Te Kaveinga Nui. mentor’s overbearing influence. Yet it Rarotonga: Office of the Prime Minister. came at the price of breaking up the solid majority arising from the 2013 Cook Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs election and throwing the country into and Immigration. 2015. The Cook Islands and Free Association: Understanding the a new period of political instability. Nature and Practice of the Special Rela- It all started in July 2014, when the tionship with New Zealand. http://www French justice system finally started .mfai.gov.ck/attachments/article/233/ catching up with Flosse’s various cases Summary%20Sheet%20NZ%20and% of corruption after decades of ineffec- 20CKI.pdf [accessed 10 Aug 2015] tive handling. On 23 July, the Paris Igarashi, Masahiro. 2001. Associated Court of Cassation, a court that exam- Statehood in International Law. Boston: ines prior cases for procedural errors, Kluwer Law International. confirmed a previous criminal convic- tion that Flosse had first appealed, to Small, Vernon, and Simon Day. 2015. Cook Islands Push for Independence from no avail, and then re-appealed. While NZ. Stuff, 31 May. http://www.stuff.co the court suspended Flosse’s jail sen- .nz/world/south-pacific/68986939/cook tence, it confirmed a fine of 125,000 -islands-push-for-independence-from-nz euros (us$138,000) as well as a depri- [accessed 5 June 2015] vation of his civil rights. The president Stone, Gregory. 2012. Opinion: Pacific was thus legally barred from voting or Nations Lead Sea-Change in Ocean Con- serving in an elected office for a period servation. cnn, 3 September. http://www of three years (ti, 23 July 2014). .cnn.com/2012/09/03/opinion/eco The substance of the charges was -solutions-pacific-ocean-opinion the so-called fictional employment [accessed 6 Nov 2015] affair, going back to the late 1990s Underbjerg, Lasse. 2014. Minister Calls and early 2000s, when various politi- for Electoral Changes after Cook Islands cians and trade union leaders had Turmoil. Interview with Cook Islands been given paid jobs at the presidential Finance Minister Mark Brown. Pacific office without ever working there, a political reviews • polynesia 211 scheme of corruption popular among Beffre’s behavior undermined the rule French politicians. of law, stating that with this prec- Under normal circumstances, Flosse edent, all convicted criminals could would immediately have been noti- now refuse to accept their sentences by fied of the final sentence and removed asking Hollande for a presidential par- from office. However, his lawyers don (ti, 29 July 2014). Similarly, Teva tried to use any and every means to Rohfritsch of the small pro-French evade the sentence, first by asking opposition party A Tia Porinetia (atp) yet another court to reexamine the expressed being “shocked” at what sentence; second by filing a complaint he perceived as a plot by the French with the European Human Rights government to protect Flosse (rnzi, Court (if either court would rule in 6 Aug 2014). Flosse’s favor, it would lead to a sus- While still acting as though the pension of his sentence); and finally by confirmed conviction did not exist, petitioning French President François Flosse undertook at least one positive Hollande for a presidential pardon (ti, step when he dismissed the controver- 23 July 2014). sial former French overseas minister, As a matter of procedure, French Brigitte Girardin, from her position as High Commissioner Lionel Beffre was the country’s “special representative notified of the sentence and tasked in Paris,” admitting that the post was with enforcing it by formally declar- superfluous (ti, 6 Aug 2014)—a fact ing Flosse ineligible and therefore that had been pointed out numerous removed from office. However, Beffre times before by the opposition and by first refused to do so, arguing, on independent observers. shaky legal grounds, that the demand Later in August, President Hol- for a presidential pardon had to be lande commented on the pardon heard first. This was interpreted as petition, stating ambiguously that an indication that Flosse’s protective “the decisions of the Judiciary should network was still operational. It was be applied” (ti, 23 Aug 2014). Beffre indeed unheard of that a convicted interpreted this as a refusal of Flosse’s criminal, whose conviction has been demand and at last initiated Flosse’s confirmed for a third time, could removal from office. On 6 Septem- evade his sentence simply by asking ber, the president was thus declared for a presidential pardon. The more removed by decree of the high com- usual procedure would be that a par- missioner and prohibited from holding don would be pronounced afterward any political office for the next three and might, for instance, lead to an years (DT, 6 Sept 2014). early release from jail or, in Flosse’s With Flosse’s party Tahoeraa case, might reinstate his civil rights Huiraatira holding a two-thirds earlier than originally intended. majority in the Assembly of French The high commissioner’s stalling Polynesia, there were initially no tactics scandalized the local opposi- surprises in managing Flosse’s succes- tion. Opposition Union Pour La sion. Following Flosse’s directions, his Démocratie (upld) leader and former former son-in-law, Assembly Speaker President Oscar Temaru argued that Edouard Fritch, was elected to the 212 the contemporary pacific • 28:1 (2016) country’s presidency on 12 September tember—which is done indirectly by (TPM, Oct 2014). Unlike Flosse the an electoral college of 714, consisting year before, Fritch was able to gather of the territory’s three French national an ultra-majority of 46 votes (out of assembly members, the 57 members a total of 57 assembly members) since of the assembly of French Polynesia, the atp caucus supported the new and delegates from all 48 municipal president. This seemingly confirmed councils—was won as anticipated by rumors already spread during the the Tahoeraa ticket consisting of Iriti 2013 elections that, despite its opposi- Teura and Vincent Dubois, the latter tion rhetoric, atp was nothing but a being another son-in-law of Flosse. “fifth column” of Tahoeraa. Fritch’s Since several Tahoeraa electors had new cabinet remained for the most worn their party colors during the part identical to that of his predeces- vote, which is prohibited under French sor, with Nuihau Laurey continuing as law, upld filed a complaint demand- vice president. Former cabinet minister ing an annulment of the election and Flosse confidant Marcel Tuihani results (TPM, Oct 2014). succeeded Fritch as assembly Speaker Senator Richard Tuheiava of upld, (ti, 15 Sept, 16 Sept 2014). who had been elected as Flosse’s ticket Having thus barely been removed mate when Tahoeraa and upld were from local politics, Flosse reentered allied in 2008, missed being reelected. it a few weeks later through the back The pro-independence opposition thus door when on 26 September the lost an important voice in Paris, as Tahoeraa assembly caucus hired him Tuheiava had been a very active advo- as “special consultant” and placed a cate of the territory’s decolonization, luxury office in the assembly building both nationally and internationally, at his disposal using a legal loophole, and it was mainly thanks to his efforts since his conviction forbade the hold- that the country won reinscription as ing of an elected office but not a job as a non–self-governing territory by con- an employee of a political institution sensual decision of the United Nations (ti, 26 Sept 2014). As Flosse appar- General Assembly in 2013. In various ently continued to exercise significant follow-up meetings of the decoloniza- influence over the government, many tion committee and other UN agen- people asked the question, reiter- cies, Tuheiava had always been present ated on the October cover of Tahiti- to represent the pro-independence sec- Pacifique Magazine next to a picture tion of the country’s population, often of Flosse and Fritch, “Who is the real in tandem with ex-President Temaru. president?” (TPM, Oct 2014). In early July, Tuheiava had first As a consequence of the confirmed attended the UN Decolonization Com- conviction, Flosse also lost his seat in mittee meeting in New York, where the French senate, which he had held he testified, together with Temaru, since 1998. This was rather a formal- in favor of more UN scrutiny over ity, however, since the term expired at France’s administration of the territory the end of September and Flosse had (otr, 1 July, 2 July 2014); he then not planned to run for another term.