system of alliances with various domestic constituencies, both of which would become important as the federation progressed. Sy was arrested on election day because of some rioting, which was blamed on his party. After the elections, the assemblies of Senegal and French Sudan approved the federation and began the process of constructing a political system to unite the two colonies. That involved three different political projects with the principle of parity (even representation from both colonies) enshrined in each' a federal government, united social movements (a labour and youth movement) and a shared political party for both countries. The federal government would have a federal assembly composed of 20 members from each of the colonies (40 in total), a President (set to be elected in August 1960) and six federal ministers (with 3 from each colony). Until a president was elected, the premier of the Mali Federation was to be Keïta and the vice-premier (and the person in charge of the armed forces) was to be Mamadou Dia from Senegal. Furthermore, as part of the parity principle, any legislative initiatives required a signature by both the premier (then later the president) and the minister responsible for that issue. The colonies were to share the import and export taxes raised in the port of Dakar between them to the advantage of French Sudan, which had almost a third of its 1959 budget provided by that tax income. At the same time, the Mali federation sought to create unified social organisations to facilitate the union between the countries. That involved creating labour movements and youth movements to operate at both the federal and national levels and a unified political party. The political party was the major project as the ruling parties in both colonies combined to form the Parti de la Fédération Africaine (PFA). It was organised separately from the federal government but with many of the same members and leaders. Senghor was the party president and Keïta was the secretary general. In addition, to have a regional influence, Djibo Bakary of Niger and Emile Zinsou of Dahomey were named the vice-presidents of the party. As articulated at the first PFA congress in July 1959 by Senghor, it would be the single political party in the country and aim to unite across the different ethnic groups in the territory. In December 1959, France and the Mali Federation began negotiations regarding independence and