Temaru received 37 of the 57 votes, from his own Union for Democracy party, but also from the Tahoeraa Huiraatira, another party headed by former President Gaston Flosse.
He also received the support from one component of the former majority, which had decided to switch sides and subsequently formed into a so-called Iaora Te Fenua led by former Tong Sang ally Jean-Christophe Bouissou.
His only opponent, incumbent Gaston Tong Sang, who had resigned at the weekend to avoid a no-confidence motion after his parliamentary majority had consistently dwindled over the past few weeks, received 20 votes from the 57 MPs.
Temaru has already held French Polynesia’s top position four times since the May 2004 general elections.
In his inaugural speech, Temaru likened his election to that of Barack Obama “who ensured that the dream of Martin Luther King becomes reality.”
He also called on each and every MP to join and give him a hand and work together to face the current economic crisis French Polynesia was now facing.
Earlier in the day, a first round of vote among the 57MPs gave no one of the four candidates a sufficient majority to be declared President.
Temaru, leader of the Union for Democracy, or UPLD, was until now speaker of Parliament.
On Wednesday, business and economic stakeholders union leader Christophe Plée reiterated the economic actors’ concerns regarding the persisting political instability in French Polynesia which, he said, was responsible for the damage on the local economic fabric.
This was particularly true in the sectors of tourism, black pearl farming.
Since 2004, French Polynesia has seen seven governments and presidents come and go, mostly due to the vote of motions of no confidence.
Following his resignation, Tong Sang has written a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, asking him to personally support him in his attempt to have once again the electoral system revamped and reformed in order to avoid further instability and, before that, to organize a round table of political dialogue between parties.
