On 28 September all Algeria—women included—went to the polls for the first time “like Europeans”, casting their votes in a single electoral college. The referendum proved to be a huge personal success for de Gaulle everywhere. In France the Communists and their allies had fought hard against it, with Sartre speaking of “this constitution of contempt” and declaring that he would “rather vote for God, He is more modest.” At most both the Gaullists and their enemies reckoned on a sixty to sixty-five per cent “oui” vote in metropolitan France; but in the event it totalled over eighty per cent, on a record turnout of eighty-five per cent.

XREF: Connects to broader Algerian war of independence and de Gaulle's decolonization history.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 934