Photo: AFP

Edouard Fritch has been re-elected as French Polynesia's president for a five-year term.

In the territorial assembly, Mr Fritch of the Tapura Huiraatira received the backing of 39 of the 57 members.

He defeated the challenges of Geffry Salmon of the Tahoeraa Huiraatira Party and of the five-time president Oscar Temaru of the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira Party.

In a surprise development, an as yet unidentified Tahoeraa member also voted for Mr Fritch.

Mr Salmon received ten votes although his party has 11 members while Mr Temaru got eight votes.

In the policy speeches preceding the assembly vote, Mr Temaru sharply attacked Mr Fritch and outlined his campaign for sovereignty.

Marking five years since the UN reinscribed French Polynesia on its decolonisation list, Mr Temaru placed a UN flag on the podium.

In his speech, Mr Fritch denounced the UN for failing to send aid after last year's floods in Tahiti.

Mr Fritch first became president in 2014 when the Tahoeraa leader Gaston Flosse was forced to resign because of a corruption conviction which carried with it ineligibility to hold office.

In the past term, Mr Fritch was convicted for corruption twice and ordered to repay more than $US80,000 but has been allowed to stay in office.

Both he and Gaston Flosse are still due to stand trial for alleged abuse of public funds over making a local council provide water to Flosse's residence for free.

Yesterday, the assembly elected Gaston Tong Sang as assembly president for five years, just two months after he was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and a fine of $US20,000 for abusing public funds.</s>At the Conrad Bora Bora Nui, you will find the perfect balance between the island’s natural beauty and the resort’s ultra-stylish, modern, and sophisticated aesthetic. The brand-new hotel, which opened in spring 2017, has an open-air spa treatment space with views of the lagoon, an exciting and diverse culinary program with six places to enjoy a meal or cocktail, and an expansive pool area with a swim-up bar. Actualizing the statement “getting away from it all,” this exclusive island is located in a private cove on Motu To’opuaa that is only accessible by boat. The resort also features the only two-story overwater bungalows in Bora Bora, providing dramatic, panoramic views. Once in your bungalow, it’s all about taking time to connect with a loved one and nature. Surrounded by the clear-blue lagoon waters, you can take swim and then relax by your private infinity pool. Feel the cool ocean breezes, as you snuggle in for a night in your plush bed and get ready to wake up to enjoy another day in this island paradise. Lagoon view suite starts at $480 per night, Overwater Villa starts at $880 per night, Presidential Overwater Villa starts at $3,305 per night. BP 502 Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia. Tel: +689-40603-300. www.boraboranui.conradhotels.com

was last modified: by</s>By 2022, between 250 and 300 people could be floating off the coast of Tahiti, buying pina coladas with Vayrons as their independent, floating city-state eases out to sea to avoid a coming typhoon. That's the dream of thinkers and investors at The Seasteading Institute, anyway: they're the folks behind The Floating Island, and they plan to create a libertarian paradise complete with its own indigenous cryptocurrency, the Vayron.

The project is expected to cost $50 million, according to the Daily Mail, and is being bankrolled by PayPal founder Peter Thiel. It will feature structures with green roofs covered with vegetation and be constructed with materials native to the South Pacific, along with recycled metal and plastic.

On January 13, 2017, the government of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the French Republic, met in San Francisco with Floating Island Project delegates to sign a memorandum of understanding on the development of the project. The agreement "obligates the Seasteading Institute to conduct an economic analysis to demonstrate the economic benefits for French Polynesia, as well as an environmental assessment to assure the health of the ocean and seabed," according to the institute's website. "When these studies are complete, French Polynesia will collaborate with The Seasteading Institute to develop a ‘special governing framework' for a land base and sea zone."

"We agree with the government on a vision," Marc Collins, the project's unofficial ambassador to Tahiti, told La Depeche after the agreement was signed. "The floating islands project will respect the environmental standards defined by French Polynesia. It will use renewable energies. It will welcome the development of innovative technologies for the protection of the environment. It will not be interested in any land or ocean mining resource."

​The institute foresees other benefits to the project as well. "We believe there could be a market on our floating city for residences, tourism, aquaculture, a business park, a research institute, and a power plant to sell energy and clean water back to the host nation," the institute's website reads.

The island will be movable, as videos on the institute's website depict, making the autonomous island capable of moving to avoid storms or, as political scientist Nathalie Mezza-Garcia suggested, for residents to vote with their feet.

"If you don't want to live under a particular government," Mezza-Garcia told CBC Friday, "people will be able to just take their house and float away to another island."

"This means there is stability, outside of fluctuating geopolitical influences, trade issues and currency fluctuations — it's the perfect incubator."
Edouard Fritch is re-elected to a second term as President of French Polynesia following the victory by his Tapura Huiraatira party in the general election. Fritch's Tapura Huiraatira won 39 of the 57 seats in the Assembly of French Polynesia.