Confusion reigns in French Polynesia.

Citizens have taken to the streets in this French protectorate, blocking government offices in Tahiti, and closing down post offices on the Leeward Islands of Huahine, Raiatea and Taha'a while calling for the dissolution of parliament and national elections. The protests mark the increasing political and economic instability that has taken hold of the islands since two noconfidence votes toppled the country's first pro-independence president, Oscar Temaru, and his Union of Democracy coalition government just 15 weeks after he came to power. The censure served a devastating blow to the pro-independence movement in Tahiti--Temaru, who led the campaign against France's nuclear testing that ended in 1996, had edged out incumbent Gaston Flosse, a close ally of Jacques Chirac, by only one vote in the last election. Despite increased support for independence within Tahiti (France annexed the archipelago in the late 1800s), Flosse had worked for many years to maintain French rule over the territory. Temaru and his allies are hotly contesting Flosse's recent re-election.