| Putai Taae | |
| Office8: | Mayor of Papara |
| Term Start8: | 26 October 2015 |
| Term End8: | 7 May 2019 |
| Predecessor8: | Christelle Lehartel |
| Successor8: | Gaston Tunoa |
| Constituency Am10: | Windward Isles 2 |
| Assembly10: | French Polynesian |
| Term Start10: | 17 May 2018 |
| Term End10: | 30 April 2023 |
| Term Start11: | 17 May 2013 |
| Term End11: | 15 August 2017 |
| Birth Date: | 1961[1] |
| Party: | Tahoera'a Huiraatira Tapura Huiraatira Tavini Huiraatira |
Putai Taae (born 1961) is a French Polynesian politician and former Member of the Assembly of French Polynesia. He is a member of Tapura Huiraatira.
Taae first entered the Assembly of French Polynesia after the 2013 French Polynesian legislative election, as a replacement for Tearii Alpha who had been appointed to Cabinet.[2] In May 2015 he joined Tapura Huiraatira.[1] In October 2015 he was elected Mayor of Papara in a by-election[3] after the 2014 Papara municipal elections were annulled by the French Council of State.[4] He lost his seat in the Assembly in August 2017, when Nicole Sanquer left Cabinet after being elected to the French National Assembly.[5] He was re-elected to the Assembly as a Tapura candidate at the 2018 election.[6]
In April 2019 he was charged with breach of trust over the allocation of funds to a town association while mayor.[7] [8] In May 2019 he was convicted and sentenced to a suspended jail sentence, a US$20,000 fine, and banned from holding public office for 2 years.[9] [10] As a result he lost his position as Mayor, but stayed in the Assembly pending the resolution of his appeal.[11] In November 2021 the conviction was upheld on appeal, and he was resentenced to an identical sentence.[12] Taae appealed the sentence again, and so retained his seat in the Assembly.[13] In December 2021 the Papara municipal council was informed that Taae was being investigated for abuse of office while mayor.[14]
In September 2022 he briefly joined Tavini Huiraatira,[15] but returned to the Tapura in December[16] after opposition from Tavini activists.[17] He was not re-elected at the 2023 election