by the RDA and gradually the tension relaxed. Break with the Communists (1950–55) Following the end to the chaos in the Ivory Coast, Houphouët-Boigny began to see the alliance with the Communist party in France as counterproductive to his larger goals. He began meetings simultaneously with both the IOM legislators and the radical wing of the RDA, led by d'Arboussier who he convinced to resign his position in the party. On 9 August 1950, the RDA and the IOM entered into a secret accord aiming to bring together the two groups in the French National Assembly, based primarily on the RDA ending their coalition with the Communist party. In domestic politics in the colonies, it was decided that the IOM and the RDA would largely retain power in the colonies which they controlled and thus prevent political conflict. The IOM was to be the main political party of the union in Guinea, Dahomey, Togo, Senegal (as Senghor had now joined the IOM), Upper Volta, Cameroon, and Ubangi-Shari while the RDA would be the representative of the alliance in French Sudan, Ivory Coast, Chad, and the Middle Congo. As both had a member of the National Assembly from Niger, the agreement was to keep that colony split. After this rapprochement between the two parties, the RDA broke with the Communist party and in December 1950 voted for the government of René Pleven. This would begin a long relationship between Pleven's party, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (, UDSR), and particularly with the young politician François Mitterrand, and the RDA. Although Mitterrand tried to change French policy towards the RDA, the colonial administration was still focused primarily on removing the RDA from any power it had remaining. In preparation for the 1951 French elections, RDA supporters were removed from voter rolls by French authorities, areas with high RDA support experienced a number of voting problems, and members were arrested and intimidated from political activity. All this resulted in a significant loss to the RDA throughout Africa and only Houphouët-Boigny, Konate, and Tchicaya were National Assembly members from the RDA following the election. In the same election, the IOM gained most consistently becoming the largest political party in Africa. Although electoral results showed significant support of the IOM over the RDA, the IOM remained largely a legislative coalition in Paris with limited support as a regional party in Africa. The