the colonies. Thus they created a Committee of Co-Ordination to be tasked with selecting which party in each colony would be the representative of the RDA party and named Houphouët-Boigny as chairman and Sissoko, Apithy, Tchicaya, d'Arboussier, and Mamadou Konate (the key Malian politician who convinced Sissoko to join the meeting) as vice-chairmen. Second, as the parties main activity would be in the National Assembly, there were active discussions about what coalitions to form with French political parties. The debate largely focused on whether to form a permanent coalition with the Communist party or to align with them while they served RDA interests. The group agreed to compromise language that the party would form coalitions with whichever party was most useful for African issues. Third, although it was briefly mentioned, the conference agreed not to call for complete independence of the colonies, but instead for an end to the unequal colonial relationship with France. Although the party was to be anti-colonial and focus on increased autonomy for the French colonies, they were not advocating secession or withdrawal from France as an immediate goal. Divisions: 1947–49 Although they only had a month to organize for the French legislative elections in November 1946, they were able to secure a number of seats by using the political organizations established by the various members. The National Assembly votes in France once again supported the three party center-left coalition of the MRP (29% of the vote), the PCF (28.6% of the vote) and the SFIO (16.5% of the vote). In French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, the RDA was able to win 10 seats for the National Assembly: with members being Houphouët-Boigny, Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly, and Zinda Kaboré from the Ivory Coast (which included the Upper Volta at this point), Apithy represented Dahomey (present-day Benin), Tchicaya represented the Middle Congo (present-day Republic of the Congo), Konate represented French Sudan, Hamani Diori represented Niger, Gabriel Lisette represented Chad, Martin Aku from Togo, and Mamba Sano from Guinea. The Socialists won six seats with continued support in Senegal (where Guèye and Senghor were both elected to positions) and from other longtime supporters like Sissoko and an associate from the French Sudan, who had left the RDA right after the meeting, and Diallo from Guinea. Because the second college of the National Assembly was not directly elected, the Socialist party was able to use political strategies to