French Polynesia president Gaston Flosse loses power

Transcript

The French Polynesian president Gaston Flosse has lost power.

He was forced out of office after a sentence for corruption was finally enforced.

The man, who has often been described as unsinkable, cannot hold political office for three years.

But being the leader of the dominant party, he is bound to continue to exert influence.

Walter Zweifel reports.

French Polynesia's president, Gaston Flosse, has quit his office after failing to get a presidential pardon from Francois Hollande for his corruption conviction.

A statement from his office says the French high commissioner delivered the document setting an end to his functions on Friday night Tahiti time.

This came a day after the court of appeal in Tahiti rejected Flosse's bid for it to wipe the sentence he received in July.

Last month, Mr Hollande said he would let the judicial process run its course, which now means the corruption conviction stands.

Flosse was convicted for running a vast network of phantom jobs to support his political party in what has been the biggest case of its kind in French legal history.

He was sentenced to a four-year suspended jail term, a 170,000 US dollar fine and banned from public office for three years last year.

The sentence had been confirmed by France's highest court in July, but the French government refused to serve him the verdict.

He sought a pardon and asked the appeal court in Tahiti not to apply the sentence.

Flosse has insisted he is innocent.

Local television reporters spoke to him moments before he was handed the decision.

Speaking about himself in the third person, he says if Gaston Flosse is not there tomorrow he will be replaced by Edouard Fritch.

He has also assured the public that there will be no interruption.

Flosse says a meeting will be called on Monday Tahiti time when he will also propose that the government's spokesperson Marcel Tuihani be chosen as  the president of the territorial assembly to replace Mr Fritch.

Although Flosse has lost his office he remains in charge of the Tahoeraa Huiraatira party, which is dominant.

Having twice as many seats as the two opposition parties combined it is in a strong position to dictate policy.

In view of Flosse's demise, the opposition's Oscar Temaru has called for fresh elections.

Flosse, who is 83, was elected president five times and was a member of the French Senate since 1998.

For most people, the sentence will spell the end of Flosse's career but a survey by the local newspaper suggests that a third of those question thinks he will be back in politics in 2018.