2019 Libyan local elections


Local elections were held in 20 municipalities in Libya in March and April 2019. The Libyan Central Commission of Municipal Council Elections aimed for a total of elections in 68 municipalities in 2019.

Background

Of the 120 local councils that were created in 2013, the Libyan Central Commission of Municipal Council Elections, headed by Salem Bentahia as of 2019, is responsible for elections in the 92 municipalities which successfully held elections with legally confirmed results during 2014–2015, and in Zawiya, Bani Walid and Dirj, in which the CCMCE held elections in 2018.

March 2019

Local elections were held in nine municipalities in southern and western Libya, including Zuwarah, on Saturday 30 March 2019, with an overall participation rate of 38 percent.

April 2019

Elections were held in 11 municipalities in April. On Saturday 20 April, local elections were held in Brak al-Shati, Edri al-Shati, al-Rahibat, Ubari, al-Garda al-Shati, al-Shwairif, and Zaltan. Ghassan Salamé, head of United Nations Support Mission in Libya, complimented Libyans for holding these elections despite the 2019 Western Libya offensive. On Saturday 27 April, municipal elections were held in Sabha. Elections that had been planned for Sabratha and Surman on the same day were postponed by the Libyan National Army. Other towns in which municipal elections were held around these dates included Wadi Otbh, al-Ghuraifa, and Riqdalin.

Sabha appeals

Four appeals against the results of the Sabha election resulted in the election being declared invalid in a judicial ruling. In early November 2019, Judge Ibrahim Mahfouz in the Court of First Instance of Sabha overturned three of the appeals. A single judicial circuit can only consider three appeals on a case in the Libyan judicial system, whose top body is the Supreme Judicial Council of Libya, which remained unified during the Second Libyan Civil War.

May 2019

Voter registration by SMS was reopened by the CCMCE on 14 May for Misrata, Sabratha, al-Khums, Msallata, Jufra, Tarhuna, southern Zawiya, Kufra, Ghat, and eight municipalities in the Nafusa Mountains, including Asbi'a, Al-Haraba, Kikla, Kabaw.