French Polynesia’s former president and veteran politician, Gaston Flosse has been given a suspended prison sentence for producing a fake contract to register as a Papeete voter.
The criminal court gave him a nine-month sentence, an US$8,000 fine, and declared him ineligible for public office for five years, dashing his hopes of standing in next year’s territorial elections.
In 2019, Flosse enlisted himself as a candidate for the municipal election in Papeete, claiming he had moved into a rented 15-square metre apartment within his party’s headquarters.
However, the court found that the sublease was a fake and signed by someone who no longer administered the premises.
In 2014, Flosse had been declared ineligible to hold public office, when a corruption conviction forced him to resign as president.
Since then, he has incurred further convictions, which now prevent him from running for office until he is 96.