The lawyer of a jailed French Polynesian assembly member says his client, Clarenntz Vernaudon, cannot afford the bail of 200,000 US dollars.
Mr Vernaudon has been held in Tahiti's Nuutania prison since June as part of a fraud probe.
Tahitipresse reports he has again applied for a release from jail after being heard by a judge in the presence of fellow employees testifying in the affair.
Mr Vernaudon is free to go if he can raise the money.
Mr Vernaudon, who is the mayor of Taiarapu-West, was a member of the ruling Union For Democracy but quit the assembly grouping while in jail to register as an independent.
