France's highest court has rejected a bid by French Polynesia's former president, Gaston Flosse, to lift his ineligibility for public office.
Two years ago, Flosse was sentenced to a four-year suspended jail term, a 170,000 US dollar fine and banned from public office for three years.
He had been convicted for running a vast network of phantom jobs to support his political party in the biggest case of its kind in French legal history.
Flosse lost office after he failed to get a pardon from the French president and after the court of appeal in Tahiti rejected his bid to have the sentence wiped.
Gaston Flosse Photo: RNZ
He then lodged an appeal in France's highest court which has now however confirmed the appeal court decision In Tahiti.
The appeal court had ruled that a request to wipe a sentence could only be filed six months after the sentence became effective.
This means Flosse can now lodge a fresh bid to have the sentence wiped.
If successful, he could stand for office in the 2018 election - the year he turns 87.