New Caledonia's pro-independence FLNKS movement has lodged more than 7,000 court cases to demand that thousands of voters be struck off the roll for next month's provincial election.
Voting will be restricted to long-term residents in line with the decolonisation process which, after the election, opens the way for a possible independence referendum.
The FLNKS insist that people who arrived in New Caledonia between 1988 and 1998 are only allowed to vote if they were also enrolled in 1998.
Special commissions assisted by magistrates from France's highest court have been revising the rolls for a month and refuse to remove any voter, which has now prompted the court action.
The FLNKS says in its submission that neither the law nor the constitution is changed by any declaration on the subject, even if it is by the prime minister.
The loyalists are fiercely opposed to the FLNKS stance and have formed an association to assist those threatened to be removed from the roll.