PAPEETE: Independence advocate Moetai Brotherson was elected president of France's Pacific territory of French Polynesia on Friday.
The choice had been expected after pro-independence forces won elections and took control of the assembly last month, paving the way for a possible referendum on the archipelagos' status.
Brotherson was elected with 38 votes in the territory's 57-seat assembly, while outgoing head Edouard Fritch, who favours autonomy within the French Republic, garnered 16 votes.
Last month's election results will allow pro-independence forces to push the French authorities to negotiate a referendum on the status of the territory, which is located northeast of New Zealand and home to about 280,000 people.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who is responsible for the overseas territories, has admitted that Polynesians “voted for change”.
The result is a blow to President Emmanuel Macron's administration, which seeks to project France as a major power in the Pacific region due to its strategic overseas territories.
In a speech delivered without notes following his election, Brotherson assured France of his “respect” while calling on the population not to “fear independence”, which will “never be imposed” on Polynesians.
He said he hoped for a referendum on self-determination “in 10 to 15 years”.
The new leader of the French Polynesian assembly, Antony Geros, is in more of a hurry to gain independence, however.
In his own inaugural speech, he argued that France had “used its authority to make and unmake majorities according to its own interests, to the point of instrumentalising the elected representatives”.
French Polynesia is one of several overseas territories that are collectively home to nearly 3 million people.
Despite French Polynesia's inclusion on the UN list of non-self-governing territories -- areas considered in violation of the international right to self-determination -- France has always refused to allow a referendum on the territory, which includes Tahiti and Bora-Bora.
Independence has been repeatedly rejected in referendums in its other major Pacific territory of New Caledonia. -AFP
