France rigged the 1948 Algerian elections by fraud and violence.
Evidence
In the municipal elections of 1947 sweeping victories by Messali’s followers alarmed the pied noir leaders. This could not be permitted on a national level. Consequently, when, in 1948, elections for the new Algerian Assembly took place as required by the 1947 statute, they turned out to be a masterpiece of rigging. There was widespread evidence of “stuffing” of election boxes by “loyal” caids or local officials; in some villages registration cards were never issued; in others heavily armed police (sometimes supported by tanks) assumed a menacing presence, and at Dechyma, where the populace refused to vote, the gardes mobiles opened fire, killing seven; nationalist election meetings were broken up and numerous arrests made. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 213 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Even in France voices (not only of the Left) were raised against the electoral fraud in Algeria; in a letter of 14 April 1949 to the Minister of the Interior, one M.R.P. deputy, Fonlupt-Esperaber, reported an incident where, although voting ended at ten-thirty, one of my M.R.P. colleagues from Algiers was invited to leave the polling centre at 10.45, but returned there a quarter of an hour later, because it was snowing, and observed that whereas at the moment of his departure the electoral list contained only some ten entries, it contained one hundred and ninety-four on his return. Having stood in the doorway of the polling centre throughout this quarter of an hour, he avouched that no one had entered. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 213 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
But the technique was to be improved upon by the next elections for the Algerian Assembly and the National Assembly, in 1951. At Djelfa neither the M.T.L.D. nor U.D.M.A. collected a single vote; while the government candidate managed to tot up 800 — out of 500 eligible voters! At Port-Gueydon 23,671 votes were cast; 23,645 registered for the government candidate. As a result, the opponents of the regime were reduced in Algiers to no more than seven or eight; in Paris the M.T.L.D. and U.D.M.A. between them were deprived of every single representative — including Ferhat Abbas. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 218 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: France rigged the 1948 Algerian Assembly elections by stuffing ballot boxes; Electoral fraud destroyed Muslim trust in all future French reform offers; The 1948 Algerian Assembly elections were systematically rigged by the French administration. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 213 (+4 more)
Related
- France rigged the 1948 Algerian Assembly elections by stuffing ballot boxes (similarity 0.97)
- The 1948 Algerian Assembly elections were systematically rigged by the French administration. (similarity 0.95)
- The 1951 Algerian elections were rigged even more blatantly than those of 1948. (similarity 0.91)
- Electoral fraud destroyed Muslim trust in all future French reform offers (similarity 0.91)
- French parliamentary deputies themselves documented egregious vote-stuffing in Algeria. (similarity 0.90)
- Electoral fraud destroyed Muslim trust in French promises of free elections. (similarity 0.88)
Broader Connections
- The 1948 Algerian Assembly elections were systematically rigged by the French administration.
#corroborates(0.95) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 213 - French parliamentary deputies themselves documented egregious vote-stuffing in Algeria.
#corroborates(0.55) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 213 - The 1951 Algerian elections were rigged even more blatantly than those of 1948.
#expands(0.40) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 218 - Electoral fraud destroyed Muslim trust in French promises of free elections.
#expands(0.35) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 222 - France’s rigged 1957 referendum radicalized the French Somaliland independence movement.
#exemplifies(0.25)