French legislative election, 1945 (Ivory Coast)

Elections to the French National Assembly were held in the territory of Ivory Coast on 21 October 1945, with a second round on 4 November as part of the wider parliamentary elections. Voting was carried out using separate electoral colleges for citizens and non-citizens.François Reste de Roca and Félix Houphouët-Boigny were elected.

In September 1944 African planters formed the African Agricultural Union (SAA) as a result of government policy that allowed them to be drafted as forced labour and their plantations destroyed based on allegations of infections with plant disease (although the real reason was that they were competing too successfully for the liking of European plantation owners). The union was led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and received support from the colony's administrators, resulting its members being exempted from forced labour. However, this went down badly with the European planters, who successfully lobbied the French government to remove Governor André-Jean-Gaston Latrille and replace him with Henry Jean Marie de Mauduit, who was more sympathetic to their views.

Ivory Coast's capital Abidjan had been given the status of "commune mixte of the second degree" in 1939, introducing elections for a town council. However, they were delayed due to World War II, and were held for the first time on 26 August 1945. Although not a political party, the SAA was the most prominent African organisation in the territory and an African Bloc was formed around it to contest the elections, putting forward an exclusively African candidate list. Despite attempts by Europeans to get the elections postponed or boycotted, the Bloc went on to win the elections, as no Africans were willing to stand against them.

The Bloc sought to secure a similar outcome for the second college elections to the National Assembly, but could not agree on a candidate. Intellectuals in Abidjan supported Kouamé Binzème, whilst SAA members backed Houphouët-Boigny. Binzème eventually contested the elections with the support of the Patriotic Action Committee of Ivory Coast.

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