The General National Congress or General National Council
(GNC; ) was the
legislative authority of
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
for two years following the end of the
First Libyan Civil War
The Libyan civil war, also known as the First Libyan Civil War and Libyan Revolution, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were ...
. It was elected by popular vote on 7 July 2012, and took power from the
National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council (NTC) was a transitional government established in the 2011 Libyan civil war. After rebel forces overthrew the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya of Muammar Gaddafi in August 2011, the NTC governed Libya for a further ...
on 8 August.
Tasked primarily with transitioning Libya to a permanent democratic constitution, it was given an 18-month deadline to fulfill this goal. When the deadline passed with work on the new constitution only just having gotten underway, Congress was forced to organise elections to a new
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
, which took power and replaced it on 4 August 2014.
A non-reelected minority of former GNC members, supported by the
LROR and
Central Shield armed groups, met on 25 August 2014 and declared a
National Salvation Government
The National Salvation Government () was a government body formed by politicians from the General National Congress's blocs that lost the June 2014 elections in Libya. The NSG was led by Khalifa al-Ghawil. The term Libya Dawn Coalition was ...
. They elected Omar al-Hasi as prime minister. From August 2014, GNC is no longer internationally recognized as the legitimate parliament of Libya.
On 5 April 2016, the GNC announced its own dissolution and has been replaced by the
High Council of State.
History
Inauguration
In a ceremony on 8 August 2012, the
National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council (NTC) was a transitional government established in the 2011 Libyan civil war. After rebel forces overthrew the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya of Muammar Gaddafi in August 2011, the NTC governed Libya for a further ...
formally transferred power to the General National Congress.
Mustafa Abdul Jalil
Mustafa Abdul Jalil (; also transcribed ''Abdul-Jelil, Abd-al-Jalil'', ''Abdel-Jalil'', ''Abdeljalil'' or ''Abdu Al Jeleil''; born 6 November 1952) is a Libyan politician who was the Chairman of the National Transitional Council from 5 March 201 ...
stepped down as head of state, passing the position to the GNC's oldest member,
Mohammed Ali Salim.
The NTC was then dissolved, while the GNC members took their oaths of office, led by Salim.
Hundreds of people gathered in
Tripoli's
Martyrs' Square with candles symbolizing reconciliation.
The date of the transfer –
20 Ramadan on the
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar (), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the Ramad ...
– had also been selected for symbolic reasons; as 20 Ramadan the previous year had fallen on 20 August, the date that the
National Liberation Army attacked Tripoli, leading to Gaddafi's flight.
As Jalil addressed the crowd, attendees periodically chanted "
Allāhu Akbar" or "The blood of
the martyrs will not be wasted!"
According to
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, the transfer was "the first
peaceful transition of power
A peaceful transition or transfer of power is a concept important to democracy, democratic governments in which the leadership of a government peacefully hands over control of government to a newly elected leadership. This may be after elections o ...
in Libya's modern history".
Post-2014 elections
In 2014,
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
to a new
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
were held. However, politicians from the blocs that lost the elections continued to convene as the General National Congress, claiming that the GNC was the legitimate parliament of Libya. However, its members did not represent a majority of the membership of the body, as the majority of the GNC members belonged to groups now participating in the internationally recognized (until the establishment of an internationally-backed
Government of National Accord
The Government of National Accord (GNA; ) was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. The agreement was unanimously endors ...
in 2016) Libyan parliament, the House of Representatives. The GNC is dominated by the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
's Libyan party, the
Justice and Construction Party
In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes'' of Justinian, a ...
.
Re-elected members from the Islamist bloc had chosen to continue to sit in the GNC, instead of the House of Representatives where they would be in a reduced minority.
After their landslide defeat in the 2014 elections, Islamist parties acting under the leadership of
Nouri Abusahmain used two armed groups, the
LROR and
Central Shield, to take control of the capital
Tripoli. In late August, Islamist militias abducted rivals (whose whereabouts are unknown) and attacked 280 homes. Having suppressed dissent, the Islamist groups declared that they were the General National Congress and that it was once again the national parliament.
The GNC continued to be led by
Nouri Abusahmain and appointed
Omar al-Hasi then
Khalifa al-Ghawi as prime ministers of the
National Salvation Government
The National Salvation Government () was a government body formed by politicians from the General National Congress's blocs that lost the June 2014 elections in Libya. The NSG was led by Khalifa al-Ghawil. The term Libya Dawn Coalition was ...
.
Dissolution
Members of the House of Representatives and the General National Congress signed a United Nations supported political agreement on 17 December 2015.
Under the terms of the agreement, a nine-member
Presidency Council and a seventeen-member interim
Government of National Accord
The Government of National Accord (GNA; ) was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. The agreement was unanimously endors ...
would be formed, with a view to holding new elections within two years.
The
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
would continue to exist as a legislature and an advisory body, to be known as the
State Council, will be formed with members nominated by the New General National Congress.
The Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, arrived in Tripoli on 30 March 2016. The following day, it was reported that the GNA has taken control of the prime ministerial offices and that the GNC appointed Prime Minister Khalifa al-Ghawi had fled to Misrata. On 1 April 2016, the head of the media bureau of the National Salvation Government announced that the NSG has resigned and handed its authority back to the General National Congress.
Media reports have also claimed that the General National Congress had "virtually disintegrated".
On April 5, the National Salvation Government of the General National Congress announced that it was resigning, "ceasing operations" and ceding power to the Presidential Council.
Following the dissolution of the GNC, former members of that body declared the establishment of the State Council, as envisaged by the LPA.
Composition
The General National Congress was composed of 200 members of which 80 were elected through a
party list system of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...
in 20 districts, ranging from 11 seats to 3 seats in each, and 120 were elected as
independents in 69 multiple-member districts, ranging in size from nine seats to 1 seat in each, elected through
Single non-transferable voting
Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote. Being a semi-proportional variant of first-past-the-post voting, under SNTV small parties, as well as large parties, have a chance t ...
or
First-past-the-post voting
First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...
. The election was complicated by voters in 53 of the constituencies being able to cast one vote for local member and also to cast a party vote for the proportional representation portion, and by the use of quota to ensure seats for women candidates in the proportional representation portion.
It is estimated that 25 independents were associated with the NFA, 17 with Justice and Construction, and 23 were Salafis.
Following the
2012 elections, an
Integrity Commission was set up to exclude and remove Gaddafi-era officials from politics. The commission removed 15 members of the GNC. Independent members from
Bayda, Baten al-Jabal,
Abu Salim, Hay al-Andalus,
Sabha,
Tarhuna
Tarhuna (; ), also Tarhoona or Tarhunah, is a Libyan village to the southeast of Tripoli, in the Murqub District. The Tarhuna District, including the city of Msallata, had an urban population of about 296,000 (est. 2003). The population in T ...
and
Ubari were expelled, along with all the independents from
Ghat and
Bani Walid, two representatives of local lists from Ubari and
Wadi al-Shate’, and two NFA deputies from
Zliten and Abu Salim. By March 2013 one expelled member from Bayda had been replaced; all other seats remained vacant.
The Congress was tasked with electing a new
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
and governing
cabinet. Among the rules approved by the GNC on the election of the Prime Minister was a prohibition on Prime Ministers and cabinet ministers being GNC members simultaneously.
The Congress selected
Mustafa Abushagur as Prime Minister on 12 September 2012,
he subsequently resigned after failing to get a cabinet approved. On 14 October 2012, the General National Congress elected former GNC member and human rights lawyer
Ali Zeidan as prime minister-designate. Zeidan was sworn in after his cabinet was approved by the GNC.
Seats by party
Leadership
On 9 August 2012, Congress members voted in a televised meeting for a president for the GNC.
Mohamed Yousef el-Magariaf, leader of the
National Front Party, won with 113 votes versus independent
Ali Zeidan who secured 85 votes. From 1981 until 2011, el-Magariaf was exiled from Libya,
and led the NFP's predecessor organisation—called the
National Front for the Salvation of Libya—for almost 20 years.
Location
The permanent location of Libya's legislature has not yet been decided, but it has been proposed that a new parliament building could be built within the former
Bab al-Azizia compound. As an interim measure, the General National Congress convened in the Al Nasr Convention Centre close to the
Rixos Al Nasr hotel in Tripoli. Libya's former legislature, the
General People's Congress, met at the
People's Hall which had been destroyed by fire during the
Libyan Civil War.
References
External links
*
{{LibyanLegislatures
Government of Libya
Politics of Libya
Political organizations based in Libya
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
2012 establishments in Libya