A small French Polynesian pro-independence party has queried the timing and source of last week's French government leak, revealing for the first time that Paris is considering Tahiti's decolonisation.
The suggestion was in a government report but it was not submitted to French Polynesian delegates in Paris last week when the overseas territories minister, Marie-Luce Penchard, canvassed their views on the fourth electoral reform since 2004.
The Ia Mana Te Nunaa party has issued a statement, saying it wants to know who leaked the plan for a 20-year decolonisation process akin to the one in place in New Caledonia.
The party says it also wants to know why such a plan is being considered as an alternative, should the reforms planned for this year fail to end the territory's political instability.
