At stake in this election:

• The 200 seats in the election of the Majlis Al Nuwab or Council of Deputies[i]

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: General National Congress President Nuri Abu SAHMAYN
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Abdullah al-THINNI[ii]
• Assembly: Unicameral “General National Congress”

Description of electoral system

• The Chief of State was elected by the General National Congress
• The Prime Minister was elected by the General National Congress
• In the General National Congress (Al Mutamar Al Watani Al Aam), 40 members were elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies, 80 members were elected by plurality vote in multi-member constituencies, and 80 members were elected through a closed-list proportional representation system.[iii]
• In the Council of Representatives (Majlis Al Nuwab), all members will be elected through a majoritarian system for single-member and multi-member sub-constituencies. There are 13 primary electoral constituencies, further divided into 75 sub-constituencies.  Of the 200 seats, 32 seats are reserved for women.[iv]

Election Note:

• The 25 June 2014 election replaces the General National Congress (GNC) with the Council of Representatives.
• Prime Minister al-THINNI stepped down after an attack on his family in early 2014. His replacement was to be Ahmed MAETIG, but al-THINNI refused to hand over power due to irregularities and wanted the Libyan Supreme Court to decide the matter.  The Court declared MAETIG’s election by Parliament to be unconstitutional.  Al-THINNI is to remain the caretaker Prime Minister until the 25 June 2014 election.

Political entities in Libya:[i]

• Political entities will not submit lists in this election as opposed to GNC elections, where lists were elected under a proportional representation (PR) system.
• Candidates in this election will run as individuals, as per Law 10/2014 on the Election of the Council of Representatives during the Transitional Period , which states: “The individual electoral system, based on the single non-transferable vote, shall be used for the election of the Council of Representatives.”

Last Election:

• On 20 February 2014, Libyans elected a 55-member assembly to draft a new constitution.[ii] Results can be found here. Its work began on Sunday 20 April 2014. The new assembly had 120 days to draft a constitution, though most observers believe it will take longer.[iii] Once the draft constitution is finished, a referendum will be held to ratify it.
• Prior to the constitution vote, the last election was for the unicameral General National Congress (GNC), which took place on took place on 7 July 2012. It consisted of 200 seats. For party-list seats, the Justice and Development Party (JDP)/ Ḥizb al-ʿAdālah wat-Tanmiyah attained won 17 seats, the February 17^th Coalition of political parties and civil society groups won 39 seats, and the National Centrist Party won 2 seats.[iv] Results can be found here and here.

Population and Voter Registration:

• Population: 6,244,174 (July 2014 est)[v]
• Registered Voters: 1.5 million voters out of 3.4 eligible voters (May 30, 2014)[vi]
• Registered OCV Voters: 10,087 voters in 13 countries.[vii]

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 3,103,220 (2014)

·         Is Libya a signatory to CEDAW: No

·         Has Libya ratified CEDAW: Yes, accession (16 May 1989)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 30 (following the 2014 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 94 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Libya a signatory to CRPD: Yes (1 May 2008)

·         Has Libya ratified CRPD: No

·         Population with a disability: 936,626 (est.)