Pacific / French Polynesia

Fraud alleged in Tahiti in French election

13:10 pm on 11 May 2017

Election day in Mahina Tahiti 2013 Photo: RNZ

The leader of French Polynesia's Tahoeraa Huiraatira party says there has been electoral fraud in last weekend's French presidential election.

Gaston Flosse told local television that he might lodge a complaint with the French state because he says votes were cast on behalf of people who lived outside their electorates.

Flosse mentioned no place but says many proxy votes were cast by outsiders.

Flosse backed Marine Le Pen who won more than 40 percent of the votes in the run-off poll against Emmanuel Macron.

In 2004, Flosse succeeded with a complaint for electoral fraud, prompting Paris to annul the territorial election in the Society Islands.

He had lost by a narrow margin but lost by a bigger one when the election was rerun in 2005.

Paris had agreed with his contention that the use of blue-coloured curtains in Mahina unduly favoured his rivals whose banners were blue.