Papeete (AFP)

The court of first instance rejected on Friday the appeal of the former president of French Polynesia Gaston Flosse, who wished to register on the electoral lists of Papeete to be candidate for the municipal ones, announced to AFP his lawyer, Me Dominique Antz.

At 88, Mr. Flosse, who was also a senator, MP and mayor of Pirae, is no longer ineligible and wants to rebound in politics.

The former strongman of this overseas community claims to have resided in Papeete for more than six months, in a room of 15 m2 which he sublets with his partner in the political permanence of his own party, the Tahoeraa.

But the town hall of Papeete, like the justice, estimated that this place could not be considered as its main residence.

This room "can not be described as living space in the absence of development allowing a full habitability of the premises (absence of kitchen) and any private character of the occupied places", judged the court.

"This accommodation lacks habitability? My God, when we see that Polynesians live at 40 in a small space of a few square meters, and that for 15 m2 we say that it is uninhabitable, it is really making fun of the world" , Gaston Flosse told AFP, adding that "we want to (the) 'eliminate".

Mr. Flosse invited the press to visit his studio, with comfort far removed from that of the vast mansions in which he has lived so far. He showed that he had a kitchen and a shower - in another space of the permanence of his party - and that he had installed in an office his exercise bike, which he uses "two hours per day".

Me Dominique Antz has announced a cassation appeal. The Court must rule before February 27, the deadline for submitting candidacies for municipal elections.

Gaston Flosse, who was deputy, senator and secretary of state to Jacques Chirac from 1986 to 1988, first built his political career on a local mandate, in the city of Pirae, of which he was mayor for almost 35 years.

The current mayor of Pirae is the president of French Polynesia Edouard Fritch. But this former dolphin of Gaston Flosse became his main political opponent and Mr. Flosse preferred to turn to the neighboring town.

Mr. Flosse has wanted to face the mayor of Papeete since 1995, Michel Buillard, also a former member of parliament.

Gaston Flosse lost all his mandates in 2014, after a sentence of ineligibility in a fictitious jobs case. He is now eligible again, but is still prosecuted in other cases.

© 2020 AFP