Wallis and Futuna

The year 1998-99 was rich in political incidents and a wide variety of events occurred: the European elections, the replacement of an elected political figure who died during his term, and the local elections.

A decree of 24 July 1998 annulled the election of 11 of the 20 counselors. Elections were scheduled for 6 September 1998 at Hahake (4 seats), Hihifo (3 seats), and Alo (4 seats). Of the remaining 9 elected counselors, 1 was a member of the opposition, and the other 8 were members of the local majority party (Rassemblement Pour la République, RPR). Eighteen parties introduced sixty-seven candidates. The ballot involved a vote for one or more candidates on a list drawn up by a political party and left little chance for the second or third candidates to enter the assembly. Electors favoring their families or their villages had the effect of dividing the vote in a uniform manner. Three of the incumbents were defeated, the consequence of which was to decrease the conservative RPR majority. The daughter of the deceased senator, Bernadette Papilio (RPR), replaced Samino Taputai by a margin of eight votes. The ideological cleavage between the majority and the minority became more pronounced. The Union for Wallis and Futuna (UPWF), which espouses principles of the socialist party, won six seats at the expense of independent members.

As a result of the death of Senator M Papilio at the beginning of 1998, elections were scheduled for 28 September. Six official candidates had to share the 21 votes of the territorial counselors and the senator combined. The considerable right-wing majority was handicapped by the presence of 5 candidates facing only 1 left-wing candidate, an incumbent member of parliament, Kamilo Gata. In the first round, the right-wing candidates had 4, 4, 3, 2, and 1 vote respectively, although the only left-wing candidate won all of the 6 votes available to the opposition. SuRPRisingly, in the second round of voting, the majority introduced only one new candidate, a fifty-one-year-old Brother of the Sacred Heart, Robert (Lopeleto) Laufoaulu, then director of Catholic education. He substituted for Emeni Simene, a candidate who had withdrawn. This suRPRise election organized by Member of Parliament Victor Brial was relatively coldly received by the political circle. However, it received the consent of the population, who took into consideration his religious responsibilities, his belonging to the aliki families, and his well-known abilities.

In January 1999, Brial announced that he would not be a candidate for a third term as president of the Territorial Assembly. On 14 January his majority party chose Soane Uhila, who had already ensured his preselection during 1992 and 1993. In January 1999, Senator Laufoaulu obtained an amendment of the Organic Act of New Caledonia, the final text specifying that the particular agreement between Wallis, Futuna, and New Caledonia will have to be in place by 31 March 2000 at the latest. Meanwhile, from 19 to 21 March, all the politicians and the inhabitants of Wallis participated in the commemoration of the forty-year reign of Lavelua Tomasi.

An agreement was signed between the Union for Wallis and Futuna (UPWF) and the French socialist party on 28 October 1998, and Kamilo Gata was ranked 77th (out of 87) in the Socialist party list during the European elections of June 1999. Two previous members of Parliament of the Socialist party organized a week of political training in May 1999 in Wallis, and Louis Le Pensec, previous minister of the Socialist party, stopped over in Wallis on 29 May for a political meeting. Out of twenty national lists, only ten provided their manifestos and advertising materials. Wallis and Futuna had the highest turnout rates in France, with more than 60 percent participation. The Socialist party list obtained 55 percent of votes (2,811), the RPR 32 percent (1,619), and the liberal party or udf 4...