Originally only the pied noir population enjoyed the right to vote for these representatives. Then came the creation of the double electoral college system; the first college consisting of all "French citizens", plus a modest proportion of select Muslims, the number of which was augmented over regular intervals — though at a painfully slow rate; the second embracing the whole Muslim population. Each college (in 1946) could elect eight senators and fifteen deputies to the National Assembly. In effect this meant that one million Europeans had voting rights equal to those of over eight million Muslims.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 91