[1][2] Following the victory of the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD) in the 1947 local elections, and with the MTLD and fellow nationalist UDMA set to win a majority in the Second College in the second round of voting, the authorities openly rigged the results in more than two-thirds of seats to ensure the victory of pro-government independents.
Among them was the leader of the "French Algeria" lobby, the deputy of Constantine René Mayer.
Candidates were arrested before the elections, ballot boxes were stuffed by the colonial administration and the voting in the villages (douars) took place without polling booths under the surveillance of the army.
Algerian nationalists triumphed in the first round of the elections, but performed significantly worse in the second as a result of the rigging.
[4][5][6] As a result of the rigging, of the 60 Second College seats, the MTLD won only nine, including Messali Hadj, Larbi Demaghlatrous (future ambassador of independent Algeria to Indonesia and Yugoslavia), Chawki Mostefaï and Djilani Embarek, whilst the UDMA won eight, including Ferhat Abbas, whilst 43 went to independents, often labelled as béni-oui-oui.