The position of governor-general was redesignated high commissioner, and each territory gained the right to elect representatives to French parliamentary bodies, including the National Assembly, the Council of the Republic, and the Assembly of the French Union. The African peoples became French citizens, and the colonies were designated overseas territories of France. But the real locus of authority remained in Paris, also because the 1946 reforms had sanctioned the existence of a dual college system for voting, with one reserved for the Europeans in Chad; the Africans could only vote for the collège des autochthones.