Proof that this kind of national consciousness existed, and of the control which the geographically absent G.P.R.A. exerted now over the Algerian people, was detectable in the local elections held in May 1960 where, though still mainly supporting de Gaulle, only fifty-six per cent of the electorate voted; while in the Casbah of Algiers the turn-out was down to thirty per cent, and in Sétif (the home town of Ferhat Abbas) to only fourteen per cent.

XREF: Relates to patterns of civil disobedience and legitimacy contests in other anti-colonial movements — where boycotts become a measure of a shadow governance structure's actual control.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1250