In early 1947 the French administration instituted a new rule that increased the weight of the French vote over the Malagasy vote in selection of candidates, and three PADESM candidates favored by French conservatives were successfully elected to the Conseil de la Republique. The results of the election and popular discontent with French interference served to intensify widespread frustration against the colonial authority and desire for Malagasy self-governance across the island. These factors finally erupted in a nationalist uprising that began on the evening of 29 March 1947 with attacks against a police camp and several French plantations in the eastern rainforest carried out by militant Malagasy nationalists, chief among them the members of the nationalist secret societies Vy Vato Sakelika (VVS) and Jiny.