There is a good chance you have heard of Libya due to its ongoing instability and warring among factions vying for power following the 2011 Libyan Civil War and overthrow and killing of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who had ruled Libya through an autocratic government for decades up until that point, the Revolution came among the wider Arab Spring during that year. Due to the consequences and fallout since that time, the country remains unstable and its politics sits in a transitional state through an UN-backed Government and temporary 2011 constitution, we shall be focusing on the system of the current UN-backed government and legislature.
Libya is a country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa and it is bordered with Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Algeria, and Tunisia, and also has a coast along the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital city is Tripoli which is located on its western coast.
The coastal area of Libya was inhabited by Neolithic peoples as far back as 8000 BC and Afroasiatic ancestors of the Berbers are thought to have moved into the area by the time of the Late Bronze Age, the earliest known tribe was the Garamantes who were based in Germa, capitol of the Garamantian Kingdom and nowadays an important historical archeological site.
The Phoenicians upon arriving in the coastal areas were the first known to setup trading posts on what is now the Libyan coast, and by the 5th Century BC, Carthage had extended its control across much of North Africa, the Punic peoples trace their origins to the Phoenicians. In 630 BC the ancient Greeks arrived and colonized around Barca in what is now Eastern Libya and founded Cyrene, now another important archeological site, four further important Greek cities were established within an area of Libya that would become historically known as Cyrenaica.
Cyrenaica was later overrun by the Persians under Cambyses II in 525 BC and was under either Persian or Egyptian rule for the next two centuries. After that Alexander the Great entered Cyrenaica in 331 BC and took it back under the control of the Greeks as part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Following the fall of Carthage the Romans did not immediately take the area historically known as Tripolitania, which instead came under the kings of Numidia, who eventually asked for and obtained the protection of the Roman Empire, where then Tripolitania came under the Africa Nova Roman province, where it experienced prosperity, with a golden age in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
The last Greek king of Cyrene, Ptolemy Apion, also gave Cyrenaica to the Romans, who annexed the region in 74 BC, joining it to Crete as a province of the Romans. By the time of Emperor Claudius, Cyrenaica saw its first Christian communities established, but the region would become devastated by the Kitos War, and became almost entirely depopulated of both Greeks and Jews. The area was repopulated by Trajan through military colonies, but the decline had begun.
During the Roman Empires decline, the classical cities fell into ruin, which was hastened by the invasion of the Vandals through North Africa during the 5th Century. When the Eastern Roman Empire rose, it reconquered North Africa under the reconquest of Justinian I during the 6th Century, defeating the Vandal Kingdom there. Efforts were made to save the old cities, but they would nonetheless collapse into disuse. The Byzantines hold over North Africa was weak, and Byzantine governors were unpopular there due to high taxes imposed to meet costs of the military, while towns and public services suffered decay. Byzantine control in the area was at its weakest by the 7th Century, with frequent Berber rebellions, and the looming threat of Muslim invasion.
Cyrenaica would eventually be conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate, and by 647 the Byzantines lost Tripoli to an army led by Abdullah ibn Saad. The final historical area of Libya, known as Fezzan, was conquered by the Rasidun Caliphate in 663. The Berber tribes came to accept Islam, but put-up resistance to Arab political rule.
After the Rasidun came the Umayyad Caliph of Damascus who ruled for several decades until they were overthrown by the Abbasid Caliphate in 750, where Libya was ruled from Baghdad. The Caliph later appointed Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab as governor of Ifriqiya in 800, where the area enjoyed much autonomy under the dynasty. The Shiite Fatimids came to control Western Libya by the 10th Century, and ruled the entire region by 972, where Bologhine ibn Ziri was appointed governor, and this Berber Zirid dynasty would later break away from the Fatimid Caliphate, and instead recognised the Abbasid Caliphate as the rightful rulers.
The Fatimids retaliated by having thousands migrate to the area mainly from two Arab Qaisi tribes, Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal, which led to the drastic alteration of the Libyan countryside, putting in place the cultural and linguistic Arabisation of the region. Zirid rule soon ended in Tripolitania in 1001 when the Banu Khazrun Berbers broke away and kept the region under their control until 1146, where the Normans of Sicily overtook the area, bringing back European rule for the time. The Moroccan Almohad Caliphate later conquered the area from them in 1159.
Tripolitania for the next five decades saw warfare between the Almohads, Ayyubids, and Banu Ghaniya insurgents. Almohad rule would end in 1221 where then the Tunisian Hafsid Dynasty took over independent from the Almohads, they would rule for the next three centuries, and by the 16th Century found themselves caught up in a power struggle between Spain and the Ottomans, Habsburg Spain briefly took Tripoli in 1510 and it was ruled by the Knights of St. John, before being conquered by the Ottomans. Cyrenaica having been ruled by the Abbasids, eventually fell under control of various Egyptian states, including the Tulunids, Ikhshidids, Ayyubids, and Mamluks, and then were taken by the Ottomans in 1517, although Ottoman authority there remained relatively absent
Fezzan on the other hand had seen some independence under the rule of the Awlad Muhammad dynasty following Kanem-Bornu imperial rule. The Ottomans conquered it between 1556-1577, and in the 1580s Fezzan gave their allegiance to the sultan.
Tripoli came under rule of a Pasha under the Ottomans, with true power eventually moving to the janissaries and in 1611 a coup was staged by the deys against the pasha. A series of deys would rule Tripolitania for the next century. Tripoli eventually fell into military anarchy due to lack of direction from the Ottomans, and many coups took place, with many deys lasting little more than a year, and a civil war in Tripolitania occurred from 1793 to 1795, which was triggered by the Ottomans reasserting their authority, and ended with Tripolitania reinstating its independence under Yusuf Karamanli.
In the early 19th Century, Tripolitania found itself fighting against the United States during the Barbary Wars, and by 1819, treaties of the Napoleonic Wars forced Barbary states to give up piracy almost in entirety, which caused Tripolitania’s economy to tank significantly, this eventually led to civil war. Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II sent in troops to restore order, ending the Karamanli dynasty and bringing Tripolitania back under Ottoman rule. But order remained shaky, and revolts continued into the late 1850s.
Italy would later conquer the area following the Italo-Turkish War from 1911 to 1912, and Italy turned the three regions into colonies, becoming part of Italian North Africa. The area included two colonies, Italian Cyrenaica, and Italian Tripolitania, which were run by Italian governors. This time saw 150k Italians move to the colonies, and making up as much as 20% of the territory’s population. But all was not well, a Libyan resistance movement rose up, most prominently under Omar Mukhtar, fighting against Italian colonization, Mukhtar was captured and executed in 1931 but became a national hero, and Libyan resistance continued.
Italy’s colonization of Libya saw many atrocities against the indigenous peoples, especially during the period known as the pacification of Libya, involving mass genocide of the indigenous peoples, as well as deaths from disease and starvation. In 1934 Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fezzan were combined by Italy and named Italian Libya. The imperials then made improvements to infrastructure and public works, including a large expansion of the railway and road networks, and encouraging establishment of industry and agriculture.
During World War II from 1940, Italian Libya became embroiled in the North African Campaign which ended in defeat for the Italians and Germans by 1943, and Libya came under the occupation of the Allies, with the British administering Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, and the French administering Fezzan. A peace treaty had Italy relinquish its claim to Libya in 1947.
Libya declared its independence in 1951 becoming the United Kingdom of Libya, where it was a constitutional and hereditary monarchy under King Idris, who would be its only ever monarch. Libya was initially one of the poorest states in the world, but quickly became very wealthy after it discovered significant oil reserves in 1959. But much of the wealth became concentrated in the hands of the King, which caused growing resentment among factions in Libya.
Eventually in 1969 Muammar Gaddafi led a military coup against the King, known as the Al Fateh Revolution. The King was overthrown and Gaddafi became known as the Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution and he governed the country as Chairman. Moves were made to reduce existing Italian influence, such as in 1970 with all Italian-owned assets being expropriated, and 12,000 Italian community were expelled, alongside a smaller community of Jews. Gaddafi Revolutionary Committees instituted rules that turned Libya into an autocratic country, although one upside was the improvements in women’s rights during the time.
There was a failed coup attempt in 1975. In 1977 Libya became the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, where Gaddafi passed power to General People’s Committees and claimed to be no more than a symbolic figurehead himself. The new government structure was claimed to be a type of direct democracy. Also, in 1977 Libya begun delivering support to Goukouni Oueddei and the People’s Armed Forces rebel group in Chad, which later became the Chadian-Libyan Conflict when the country invaded Chad in support of the rebels, against groups backed by France, the war would eventually be won by the French backed side.
Libya also fought a four-day border war with Egypt in 1977 which led to a ceasefire mediated by Algeria. Libya also militarily supported Uganda in the Uganda-Tanzania War, which ended with Tanzania’s victory and the loss of hundreds of Libyan lives. Gaddafi became known for his financial support into various groups, even including trade unions in Australia, and support of terrorist groups. The US launched an airstrike in Libya in 1986 in a failed attempt to kill Gaddafi, and was in response to a terrorist attack in West Berlin. Libya was later sanctioned by the UN following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed all 259 people on board and a further 11 people on the ground.
Gaddafi would remain the country’s ruler until 2011 where the Arab Spring led to a full-scale uprising that begun in Feb 2011, known as the Libyan Civil War, following uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. But unlike the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt which did not develop into full scale civil war as the governments were overthrown relatively quickly, Libya’s did turn into a civil war as the government and military put up much more resistance to the uprising.
During the war an alternative government developed that received Western backing, called the National Transitional Government, but Gaddafi and his forces continued fighting. This led to the West and the UN condemning Gaddafi for violating international law, and Libya was then expelled. A UN resolution was eventually passed to establish a no-fly zone over Libya against Gaddafi, which was not voted against, although Russia, China, India, Brazil, and Germany abstained. A US-led NATO coalition begun operations against Gaddafi soon after, which led to the revolution being ultimately successful.
Tripoli was soon occupied by rebels and the decisive Battle of Sirte saw the capture and killing of Muammar Gaddafi.
Since the end of that civil war the country remained unstable due to Libya being split among rival militias, with them divided among regional, city, and tribal lines, and the new Western backed government failed to be able to consolidate its control. An election was held in July 2012 which saw the National Transitional Council hand power over to the General National Congress, tasked with forming an interim government and drafting a new constitution that was to be approved in a national referendum.
But strong instability continued through sectarian violence, the destruction of a Sufi mosque in Tripoli, and other acts of vandalism and destruction of heritage sites by suspected Islamist militants. Then in September 2012 Islamist militants attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, killing the US ambassador to Libya and three others, generating massive outrage.
Several short-lived weak governments followed. Elections in 2014 were held to elect a new legislative body, the House of Representatives, to replace the General National Congress, the elections saw much violence and low turnout. Secularists and liberals performed good in the election, which angered Islamist lawmakers from the General National Congress, who went ahead and declared a continuing mandate for the Congress in opposition to the House of Representatives, forcing them to flee to Tobruk where they setup their own government, while a UN-backed government of National Accord later emerged in Tripoli.
Soon after this the Second Libyan Civil War has been ongoing, with tribal militias and Islamic jihadist groups also taking advantage of the chaos to gain power and influence in the region, including fighters loyal to ISIS who seized Sirte and Derna, Egypt supported the Tobruk government by launching airstrikes against ISIS in Libya.
Attempts were made to bring the two rival governments and parliaments together but made little progress, and meanwhile terrorism increased, which also begun to affect neighboring countries, and Libya became a major transit point among the chaos of migrants trying to reach Europe to escape the war and find a better life. An agreement was eventually reached that saw the creation of the UN-backed Government of National Unity, a bid to unite the Tobruk government and the Government of National Accord and a ceasefire was put in place between warring factions in October 2020, and the National Unity government was officially accepted by the House of Representatives in March 2021, elections for President and the parliament are set to take place in December this year, but there is still a long way to go towards fully stabilizing the country, and fighting could very well break out again.
The country’s official language is Arabic, and the largest religion is Sunni Islam. The country’s currency is the Libyan dinar. The country’s population is over 6,966,680.
Government Type
Due to the current state of Libya, the country does not have a Head of State but instead a council that performs functions of the Head of State. There is a Prime Minister who is Head of Government of the UN-Backed Government of National Unity. The legislative government consists of the House of Representatives which is the primary chamber, but there is also the High Council of State which is an advisory body for the Government of National Unity and the House of Representatives. The state’s armed forces are currently unified under a joint commission which I will explain further on later.
The current system was put together under a UN backed agreement in 2015 and through the subsequent Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. There will be elections in Libya scheduled to take place this year to elect the parliament and also elections at some point in the future to elect a Head of State. A new constitution has been drafted and is waiting to be approved in a future national referendum.
So as of now the transitional 2011 constitution is the supreme law in effect but since it has pretty much been transitioned through it is basically useless for this post and so much of this post focuses on the 2015 agreement, as there is little information currently available on the 2017 draft constitution. But once there is information available on it and it is released, we shall create a bonus post on Libya’s government system after that going over Libya’s new government system – that is IF all goes to plan, as things do still remain shaky. A ceasefire has been in effect since late 2020.
Since things are not very clear and there is not really a constitution to follow, this will likely be a shorter blog post than the other Government System posts.
The Executive Government
The 2015 agreement saw the creation of a 9-member Presidential Council to take up the operations of the Head of State of which currently there is no single figure acting as Head of State, just the current body. The council was later reduced to three members, with the Chairman being the most senior figure and can be considered a president-figure of the country. The three members each represent the three historical regions of Libya which are, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan.
The current members of the Presidential Council and the Prime Minister were chosen via a vote of a 75-member meeting of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, a body backed by the UN that aims to conduct decisions for the Libyan peace process through intra-Libyan meetings and establish democratic legitimacy to Libyan institutions to bring about democratic Libyan elections quickly and maintain political stability and peace. In essence they have created a transitional government and council to pursue this ultimate purpose.
Most recently the Presidential Council met in Tripoli on 1st July along with the Prime Minister of the Unity Government where they discussed electricity outages, COVID vaccines, health measures, as well as services and matters of foreign policy.
The Prime Minister himself had also held a meeting with the Chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Chief of Intelligence, as well as representatives of the Libyan Investment Authority, and other institutions.
Following the choice of Prime Minister, a list of appointees to the Libyan Government’s Cabinet were released, which included two Deputy Prime Ministers, six Ministers of State and thirty-five ministers that were also approved later by the House of Representatives who also approved the three-member presidential council. The position of Defense Minister is held jointly by the three members of the Presidential Council, making the Presidential Council have the power of Commander-in-Chief for now.
Despite this though the Presidential Council has attempted to demand the Prime Minister to appoint a defense minister and threatened that if he failed to do so they would appoint one themselves and refer it to the House of Representatives for confirmation. The Prime Minister rebuked this by saying the power to appoint Ministers lied with himself as Prime Minister, as part of the outcome of Libyan Political Dialogue Forum meetings. This slight altercation once again shows the potentially fragile nature of Libya’s current transitional system towards fracturing and attempting to overrule the Unity Government and Prime Minister.
The Presidential Council and the Government receives advice and guidance from the High Council of State as well as oversight. The House of Representatives has also provided oversight of the Government.
The members of the Presidential Council and the Prime Minister are Independent and not a part of any political parties, although this does not necessarily mean they do not or will not develop leanings towards certain influences, powers, or groups. That danger still exists.
In and of itself due to the current state of things there has been limited governance in Libya, whether from the UN backed Government or other opposing authorities elsewhere. This has led to some protests springing up from citizens who are tired with the lack of governance, corruption, and inadequate public infrastructure and utilities. Many of these protests have been met with live gunfire from armed groups according to the latest Freedom House Report on Libya.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has only served to worsen the suffering of the people under the current political stagnation, and although the acceptance of the unity Government has brought some limited hope, the situation still seems very tough to remedy and a true unification of all of Libya under the Government seems like a long shot. Many expect fighting to breakout again at some point.
Governance is crawling along though, albeit slowly, but 2021 does seem to provide some promising news on the cooperation front during the ongoing transition. The Prime Minister has said they have so-far acquired 600k Coronavirus vaccines, and plans a possible 2-week shutdown of the border with Tunisia due to the pandemic. The Prime Minister also acknowledged the dire need for a reconstruction of Libya’s health service.
The two main opposing Armed Forces, that of Haftar’s forces and forces of the GNA/Unity have been brought together under the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, which includes five senior military officers from Haftar’s forces, and 5 senior military officers from the GNA’s/Unity forces. This is a part of the wider Libyan Peace Process. This Commission met in Geneva and achieved the 2020 ceasefire that is currently in effect, and it continues to remain an influential body in the ongoing transitional phase.
The Commission aims to keep the two sides in direct discussion and in a unified state to prevent further fighting from breaking out, but of course the possibility of breakdown between the two sides remains a very real threat, and it will remain to be seen if following elections in December, if both sides can continue working together.
The latest shows that the Prime Minister of the Unity Government held a meeting with the above Commission on the 5th July. The Prime Minister announced they were working together to choose two deputies for the Defense Ministry from members of the Commission. The Prime Minister also said it had provided the Commission with all its needs and paid off its financial debts.
The Legislative Government
An agreement in 2015 looked to bring the two rival parliaments together, the House of Representatives and the General National Congress, with the House of Representatives remaining the main legislative body while a new body was created called the High Council of State of which its seats were given to former General National Congress members or members affiliated with them.
The purpose of the House of Representatives is to most obviously act as a legislative body, although it has been relatively inactive, and in many of its meetings failed to meet a quorum. It passed a referendum law in 2018 and eventually approved the current Presidential Council and Government in March 2021 following the 2020 ceasefire, and its meetings in 2021 have become more frequent and hopeful.
Elections for the House of Representatives are planned to be held in December of this year, so perhaps from then we can expect it to become more active. Certainly, though after a proper constitution is implemented, the rules and procedure of the House of Representatives should become clearer, and should state how many sessions must be held within a year, usually constitutions demand that at least two sessions of a Parliament are held annually.
The House of Representatives does have a Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Most recently the House of Representatives have been working to pass the current year’s state budget, but has not yet been passed due to another suspension of the session on July 5th. The Prime Minister had said the session would be resumed from the 6th July. The Prime Minister was grilled on certain parts of the expenditure, the performance of his Foreign Minister, the work of the General Electricity Company, and the COVID-19 response. This shows that the House of Representatives in this case seems to be working as intended on Government oversight, which is what is expected from most parliaments around the world.
The Prime Minister also briefed the Parliament on issues his government are facing, which is a good sign on Government transparency and accountability.
Pro-Haftar members in the House blamed the Unity Government’s lack of cooperation with Haftar for why the Budget had not yet been passed, claiming that if they agreed to name a defense minister, and allocate a Budget to Haftar’s General Command, the Budget would have passed. To read more about Haftar, go to ‘The Issues Ahead’ section below.
The session did continue from the 6th July but once again failed to pass a Budget and will try again on the coming Monday (12th July). The session on Monday will apparently also include talks on the election of a Libyan President directly by the people, and distribution of electoral centers across the country.
Some of the members of the House have claimed that the Budget will not pass until the army (referring to Haftar’s armed forces) are satisfied with the Budget themselves. Others have said that if the Unity Government simply accepted the Budget amendments offered by the House Budget Committee, then the Budget would be approved. It is possible that if an agreement still does not come forth, a modified Budget less than 57 billion dinars excluding the emergency spending chapter could be approved instead.
The House of Representatives is meant to have 200 members with 32 of its seats reserved for women, although the last election held only elected 188 members due to boycotts and a lack of security at some polling stations. The High Council of State consists of 145 members. This is according to the CIA World Factbook page for Libya.
The Issues Ahead
Elections for a Head of State are planned to go ahead some point in the future, and such plans and conduction of elections are planned to be discussed by the House of Representatives. Elections for the House of Representatives are planned to go ahead in December of this year (the 24th), the country’s first election in around 6-years.
But the road to the election is very rocky, with the transitional government not having full control of all of Libya’s territory from rival factions and groups, including a prominent threat of breakdown with General Haftar and his Libyan Arab Armed Forces (who had fought for the House of Representatives and the Tobruk government before the Unity Government gained legitimacy).
Haftar has been backed by Russia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates during the Second Libyan Civil War. Haftar was originally a part of Gaddafi’s government but was caught in a plot to overthrow Gaddafi, he was later released via a deal with the United States in 1990 where he went to live, he returned to Libya following the toppling and killing of Gaddafi after the 2011 Civil War.
In 2019 he launched an assault against the capitol Tripoli in an attempt to take it from the Government of National Accord in support of the Tobruk Government, but the operation failed and was repelled by the GNA with support from Turkish forces. Hafter has expressed interest in running for the Presidency whenever those elections are to take place. For now Haftar’s forces and the GNA forces have been brought togther under the 5+5 Military Commission which achieved a ceasefire in 2020, although it remains fragile.
The Government institutions are also not correctly centralized across the country, and different authorities elsewhere may have established opposing institutions, according to the Freedom House report on Libya.
The Judiciary system itself has an unclear role, and existing judges, prosecutors, and lawyers face intimidation and attacks. The Judiciary as a centralised system has all but collapsed, and many courts across the country are unable to function. Informal mechanisms have been setup in some areas to resolve disputes, while pro-Haftar areas in Eastern Libya have a system of military courts.
There are concerns that the National Accord side of the Government themselves, currently a part of the unity Government, and the current Presidential Council may not dissolve peacefully following elections.
Al-Jazeera has reported that the GNA (Government of National Accord) continue to receive assistance and supplies from Turkey and Turkish troops have remained in the capital so far against wishes of the ceasefire, and calls for them to go has caused divisions to spring up within the Unity Government. The HQ of the Presidential Council was apparently raided by armed militia in May, although the Council itself denied the men were armed or that it was any kind of attack, the incident was also on a Friday which is a day of rest and therefore the PC was not working, although the Chairman was still present at the hotel at the time. The PC has said it is willing to work with the groups involved. The incident may be related to the ongoing divisions in the Government, such as between them and supporters of Haftar.
The Presidential Council has established a security agency led by prominent armed groups under their control, and many foreign fighters have not yet left the country despite a demand to do so under the ceasefire, and Islamist Extremist groups remain a threat, and so the situation remains incredibly precarious and could easily breakdown, especially since the ceasefire is being treated more as a time to gear up, rather than head in a more peaceful direction. Meanwhile amongst all this, the people continue to suffer most of all. We can only hope that the promising signs in 2021 so far continue on and the December election goes well, but even then there is still much that requires fixing.
Sources
The sources for this have been placed in hyperlinks throughout the article itself. This was one of the more difficult government system posts to put together due to the incredibly unique situation present in Libya currently, and the risk that it could all breakdown. I hope to one day come back to Libya when it is more stable and past the transitional phase, but it is unclear when this will happen.
In all the past Government System posts I have done; Libya’s has been the most unique as no others I have yet done have such a fractured and complex situation. Even Syria will likely be more easily done as they still have the Assad Government in place, although that’s not to say that it is not still a highly complex and sensitive situation, and the Assad Government is yet to gain full control over all of Syria’s territory, and there are no guarantees that they can continue to hold on, let’s say if Russia eventually decides to pullout. But that will be an issue once we reach it, it is still some time away yet.
Next up will be the Government system of Liechtenstein, which should be more straightforward than Libya, but still unique and interesting.
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