French Polynesia's vice president, Edouard Fritch, has suggested that the Tahoeraa Huiraatira leader, Gaston Flosse, replace him in a government reshuffle if Mr Fritch wins the presidency of the assembly.
The proposal comes less than a month after Mr Flosse's release from prison where he was held for several weeks as part of a corruption investigation.
The opposition's Jean-Christophe Bouissou says seeing the former president in a top post would be a bad look in Paris given his involvement in various judicial affairs.
Mr Flosse, who has appealed all his convictions, was last president two years ago for just over a month.
The opposition leader, Oscar Temaru, has repeated that he will lodge a no confidence motion once the prosecutor has tabled the findings of the probe into the Anuanuraro atoll affair.
This relates to the 2002 purchase of Anuanuraro atoll by the then government of Gaston Flosse, which included the current president and vice president.
The atoll was bought from the territory's leading pearl producer allegedly for five times its value.
