16 Mar 2011

No resolution in French Polynesia budget impasse

2:27 pm on 16 March 2011

There is continued uncertainty surrounding French Polynesia's 2011 budget which has been at the centre of a political and legal dispute.

Media reports from Tahiti say a court ruling expected this week is now not likely until May.

The assembly passed the budget last month, but the president, Gaston Tong Sang, has refused to accept it and instead published his one budget as the official document.

The French high commissioner, Richard Didier, said last week that it was not up to him but to the courts which budget is valid.

The assembly, in which Mr Tong Sang has the support of less than a fifth of its members, is poised to vote the annulment of the budgetary measures approved by him.

There has also been an official complaint by a citizen over Mr Tong Sang's publication of a budget that differed from the one passed by the assembly.