Ousted president and govt start hunger strike

In a dramatic twist to French Polynesia’s political crisis, the ousted president declared that he and his ex-government had started a hunger strike to protest at what they called unlawful elections.

Pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru said he and two dozen of his allies planned to fast until “justice is returned to the people,” in the French territory.

“In our country today, there are two presidents – one elected by the people and a self-proclaimed president” Temaru told a news conference.

Temaru has said he wants to gradually move the territory – made up of 121 islands with a total population of 240,000 – to independence from France.

In a parliamentary vote last Friday, long-serving former ruler Gaston Flosse replaced Temaru, who had served just four months in power. Flosse, a conservative, is a close ally of French President Jacques Chirac.

It was a comeback for Flosse, who had served as president of the territory since 1982 with a three-year break from 1988-1991. He had lost the leadership post in May elections.

Temaru’s term was cut short when the parliament approved a censure vote in early October that paved the way for last Friday’s vote. Temaru has denounced the censure motion and the election as “manoeuvres” by Chirac’s conservatives. Paris had denied any involvement or wrongdoing.

Temaru said a delegation would go to Paris and Brussels on his behalf later this week to demand the dissolution of the parliament and new elections.

A decision to dissolve the parliament of French Polynesia, in the South Pacific some 17,000 kilometres (10,500 miles) from Paris, must come from the French president.

France’s Socialist Party, which backs Temaru, echoed the criticism.

In a newspaper interview, party leader Francois Hollande accused Chirac of “complicity” in Flosse’s return to power and urged the French leader to “send Polynesians back to the polls.”