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Libya Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Libya
Official Name: Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Capital: Tripoli
Area: 1,759,540 square kilometres (679,362 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
Tripoli 2,595,000 (1990 estimate)
Benghazi 1,059,000 (1995 estimate)
Population: 5,407,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 3.5 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Jamahiriya (“a state of the masses”) in theory, governed by the populace through local councils; in fact, a military dictatorship
Independence: 24 December 1951 (from Italy)
Constitution: 11 December 1969; amended 2 March 1977
Voting Rights: Universal and compulsory at age 18
Government
Power is shared between the head of state, or revolutionary leader; the 5 members of the General Secretariat of the national legislature, the General People’s Congress (GPC); and the 16 members of the General People’s Committee, who are appointed by the GPC.
Libya, previously divided into governorates, was reorganized in 1977 into 46 municipal and 186 basic people’s congress administrative units.
Civil, criminal, and commercial justice in Libya follows the Egyptian model. In 1979 judicial power in Libya came under the authority of the People’s Committee for Justice. The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and several associate judges. Courts of first instance, summary courts, and courts of appeal also function.
Recent History
After long-term Turkish and later Italian rule, Libya became an independent state in December 1951. King Idris I, from the eastern province of Cyrenaica, reigned as monarch of the United Kingdom of Libya. Independence was soon followed by another important event. In 1959 large deposits of petroleum were discovered in Libya and the poor, underdeveloped country was transformed into a wealthy nation. During this period, Libya’s government generally maintained close ties with the West, although Arab nationalism enjoyed increasing popularity with the people, especially with younger generations.
On 1 September 1969, while King Idris sought medical treatment abroad, young soldiers seized control of the government, abolishing the monarchy and proclaiming a Libyan Arab Republic. The 12-member Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), which had led the bloodless coup, assumed all legislative functions. Leaders affirmed Libya’s dedication to Arab unity and its support of the Palestinian cause against Israel. The regime embraced an Arab interpretation of socialism that merged Islamic principles with social, economic, and political reform. The 27-year-old Moammar al Gadhafi became the new head of state.
The mid-1970s witnessed major changes in Libya’s political and economic systems. Gadhafi published his treatise The Green Book, the General People’s Congress (GPC) took the place of the RCC, and the Libyan Arab Republic became the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (state of the masses). Meanwhile, Gadhafi discouraged private enterprise and sought to diversify the economy and reduce long-term dependence on oil, although oil revenue continued to contribute significantly to the improvement of Libyans’ standards of living and social services. Despite these improvements, thousands of Libyans—opponents of Gadhafi’s policies—had emigrated abroad by the beginning of the 1980s. During this time there was a wave of assassinations of notable Libyan dissidents, mainly in western Europe.
On the international front, Gadhafi became the leading proponent of Arab unity in the 1970s, seeking political union alternately with Egypt, Syria, Chad, Tunisia, and Morocco. He met with little success. In 1981 the GPC announced general Libyan support for national liberation movements around the world. This policy met with significant disapproval from governments abroad, who had already suspected Libya of assisting international terrorist activities and political subversion. Decline in oil revenues and consequent economic slowdown, a continued reliance upon non-Libyan expertise, tense foreign relations, and internal dissidence posed problems for the Gadhafi regime in the early 1980s.
Relations between Libya and the United States turned increasingly hostile in the 1970s and 1980s. Libya viewed the United States as the leader of Western imperialism and capitalism; the United States perceived Libyan support of liberation movements as aid to international terrorists. The worst of the conflicts took place in 1986, when Libyan agents planted a bomb in a Berlin nightclub frequented by American service personnel and the United States launched air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi, killing a number of civilians.
Since the late 1980s, American claims regarding Libyan production of chemical warfare materials have further strained relations between the two nations. Libyan involvement in Chad has not helped the situation with the United States, as well as with Chad and France. Libya has an unresolved issue with Chad and Niger regarding the Aozou Strip. The Libyan border with Algeria is also contested. Two Libyans have been named as suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. Gadhafi’s refusal to release them for trial, on the basis that they will not receive a fair trial in the United States or United Kingdom, has led to United Nations (UN) trade restrictions and sanctions on international flights since 1992.
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