The General People's Committee (, al-lajna ash-sha'biyya al-'āmma), often abbreviated as the GPCO, was the executive branch of the government of Libya, during the existence of Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. It served as the intermediary between the masses and government leadership and was composed of the Secretary-General and twenty secretaries of some 600 local Basic People's Congresses (BPC), GPCO members were elected by the country's parliament, the General People's Congress (GPC), and had no fixed terms. The GPCO was the rough equivalent of the cabinet in many republics, constitutional democracies, and constitutional monarchies, as well as the Executive Board of the Libya's own subsequent National Transitional Council, which ultimately replaced the jamahiriya as Libya's dominant force in 2011, as a result of the First Libyan Civil War. The GPCO was scattered by the fall of Tripoli, with some of its members fleeing into exile, some becoming prisoners of war, and some remaining in Libya.

History

In March 1977, the General People's Congress (GPC) adopted the "Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People" and proclaimed the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The people exercise authority through the people's committees, people's congresses, professional associations, and the GPC. Elections were direct, and all voting consisted of a show of hands or a division into yea-or-nay camps. Suffrage and committee or congress membership were open to all Libyan citizens eighteen years of age or older in good legal and political standing. In theory, the residents of each zone elected their own people's committee. Similarly, the residents of each branch municipality elected their own Basic People's Congress (BPC). The BPC members then elected a chairman and a five-member branch or municipal people's committee. The General People's Congress was made up of the chairmen of the BPC, the branch and municipal people's committees, and representatives of the people's committees for unions, professional associations and student unions. The GPCO replaced the former Council of Ministers, its members being referred to as secretaries rather than ministers. Legislative and executive authority was vested in the GPC. This body, however, delegated most important authority to its general secretary and General Secretariat and to the GPCO. Muammar Gaddafi, as general secretary of the GPC, remained primary policy maker. As a part of a decentralisation program undertaken during September 1988, all GPCO secretariats, except those responsible for foreign policy and information, were relocated away from Tripoli. In early 1993 it was announced that the Secretariat for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation was to be moved to Ra's Lanuf.

Competences of GPCO

Responsibilities

GPCO Ministries

By the end of the Gaddafi era, the General People's Committee consisted of the following sub-agencies, led by a cabinet secretary: