Elections to the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

were held in

French Gabon French Equatorial Africa (, or AEF) was a federation of French colonial territories in Equatorial Africa which consisted of Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad. It existed from 1910 to 1958 and its administration was based in Brazzav ...

and Moyen Congo as part of the wider French election on 10 November 1946.

Electorate and constituencies

The electorate of French colonies in Africa was divided into two segments, one elected by common law citizens (the first college, i.e. French citizens) and one elected by citizens of professional stature (the second college, i.e. Africans who were 21 years and above, and qualified as a member of one of twelve specified categories; civil servants, notables, soldiers and veterans, heads of native collectivities, members of native courts, etc.). In the Gabon-Moyen-Congo constituency for a single first college seat, there were 4,148 registered voters, whilst the two second college seats had 26,530 registered voters in Gabon and 23,119 in Moyen Congo respectively. In

French West Africa French West Africa (, ) was a federation of eight French colonial empires#Second French colonial empire, French colonial territories in West Africa: Colonial Mauritania, Mauritania, French Senegal, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guin ...

the setting up of two separate electoral colleges had caused an uproar, there were generally few reactions from in

French Equatorial Africa French Equatorial Africa (, or AEF) was a federation of French colonial territories in Equatorial Africa which consisted of Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad. It existed from 1910 to 1958 and its administration was based in Brazzav ...

(AEF). The Congolese member of the National Assembly, Jean-Félix Tchicaya, was the sole voice from the AEF to condemn the separate electoral college system during the debates in the National Assembly in the run-up to the elections.Thompson, Virginia McLean, and Richard Adloff.
The Emerging States of French Equatorial Africa
'. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1960. pp. 37-40 Electoral participation (amongst the second college) was 47.8% in Gabon and 67.7% in Moyen-Congo.

Results

In the second college, Jean-Félix Tchicaya (the leader of the Congolese Progressive Party) was elected from Moyen-Congo and

Jean-Hilaire Aubame Jean-Hilaire Aubame (10 November 1912 – 18 August 1989) was a Gabonese politician active during both the French Equatorial Africa, colonial and History of Gabon#Independence of Gabon, independence periods. The French journalist Pierre Péa ...

was elected from Gabon. Aubame got 7,069 votes, out of 12,528 votes cast.

Barthélemy Boganda Barthélemy Boganda ( – 29 March 1959) was a Central African politician and independence activist. Boganda was active prior to his country's independence, during the period when the area, part of French Equatorial Africa, was administered by ...

of the

Popular Republican Movement The Popular Republican Movement (, MRP) was a Christian-democratic political party in France during the Fourth Republic. Its base was the Catholic vote and its leaders included Georges Bidault, Robert Schuman, Paul Coste-Floret, Pierre-Henr ...

(MRP) was elected from Oubangui-Chari. Maurice Bayrou was elected from the first college Gabon–Moyen Congo seat. He contested the election as an 'independent socialist', supported by the local French administration. His main rival was the

SFIO The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output. These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header . The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at ...

candidate Henri Seignon. Bayrou got 55.1% (around 1195 votes) of the votes and Seignon 39% (846 votes). After the elections, Bayrou joined the

Gaullist Gaullism ( ) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withdrew French forces from t ...

Rally of the French People The Rally of the French People ( , RPF) was a right-wing French political party, existing from 1947 to 1955 and led by Charles de Gaulle. Foundation The RPF was founded by Charles de Gaulle in Strasbourg on 14 April 1947, one year after his resi ...

.Bernault, Florence.
Démocraties ambiguës en Afrique centrale: Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, 1940-1965
'. Paris: Karthala, 1996. pp. 123-124

First College

Second College: Gabon

Second College: Moyen Congo

References

{{Republic of the Congo elections

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

1946 11 1946 11

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...