Jacques Tauraa

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Jacques Tauraa
President of the Assembly of French Polynesia
In office
6 November 1962 – 17 May 1968
Preceded byFrantz Vanizette
Succeeded byJean Millaud
In office
20 May 1959 – 2 March 1961
Preceded byGeorges Leboucher
Succeeded byFrantz Vanizette
Minister of Economic Affairs
In office
11 December 1957 – 28 October 1958
PresidentPouvanaa a Oopa
Member of the French Polynesian Assembly
for Windward Islands
In office
3 November 1957 – 16 May 1968
Personal details
Born4 February 1920[1]
Died12 February 1980[1]
PartyDemocratic Rally of the Tahitian People
Here Ai'a

Jacques Tauraa (4 February 1920 – 12 February 1980) was a French Polynesian politician and Cabinet Minister who was the longest-serving president of the Assembly of French Polynesia. He was a member of the Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People (RDPT).

Tauraa was born in Papeete and was a farmer.[1] He was president of the Chamber of Agriculture until 1957, when his membership of the pro-independence Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People caused him to lose the position.[1]

He was elected to the Assembly of French Polynesia in the 1957 French Polynesian legislative election and appointed Minister of Economic Affairs in the government of Pouvanaa a Oopa.[1][2] He was a proponent of "yes" (remain part of France, rather than become independent) in the 1958 French Polynesian constitutional referendum.[1] He lost his position as a Minister when the French colonial government dissolved Oopa's government following the referendum, but was subsequently elected by the Assembly to the resulting interim government.[3] In May 1959 he was elected president of the Assembly.[1]

Following Oopa's prosecution, conviction and exile for arson he became the leader of the RDPT.[4] He was re-elected in the 1962 election and elected president of the Assembly, a position he held for the next six years.[1] As president of the Assembly, Tauraa opposed the use of French Polynesia as a nuclear test site.[5][6] He also supported an income tax to provide financial independence from France.[7]

Following the dissolution of the RDPT by the colonial authorities, Tauraa joined Teariki's Here Ai'a.[1] A dispute with Teariki over who the party should back in the 1965 French presidential election saw Tauraa and many of the RDPT's MP's expelled from the party in 1966.[1] In 1967 he founded a new party, the Regrouping of the Tahitian People, to contest the 1967 election, but failed to secure re-election.[8]

Personal life

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Tauraa's brother-in-law was Jacques Drollet.[9]

References

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  9. ^ The French Pacific Islands: French Polynesia and New Caledonia, by Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff; published 1971 by University of California Press; Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).; p. 62