Nevertheless, on 27 August 1947 it was finally voted in by 328 to 33, with 208 abstentions — including, discouragingly, those of the fifteen Muslim deputies. The 1947 statute tabled five important reforms which the Muslims had been demanding for many years:

QUESTION: Why did the fifteen Muslim deputies abstain rather than vote against? Their abstention signals skepticism, not outright opposition.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 199