The ''

Baladiyah Baladiyah () is a type of Arabic administrative division that can be translated as "district", "sub-district" or "municipality". The plural is baladiyat (). Grammatically, it is the feminine of "rural, country-, folk-". The Arabic term amanah ...

'' (singular), or ''baladiyat'' (plural), is the current second-level administration subdivision of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Su ...

being reintroduced in 2012 by the General National Congress with Law 59 on the system of local administration, dividing the country into governorates (''muhafazat'') and districts (''baladiyat''), with baladiyah having local councils. ''Baladiyah'' is an

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

word used in many Arab countries to denote administrative divisions of a country.

History

Baladiyat were first introduced in

in 1983 to replace the

governorate A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is often used in translation from ...

system. The ten existing governorates were replaced with forty-six baladiyat, but in 1988 that number was reduced to twenty-five baladiyat. In 1995 they were replaced by '' shabiyat''. For Libya, the baladiyat are usually known in English as "districts" and sometimes as "municipalities", but the municipal level under the baladiyat and subsequent shabiyat systems was the Basic People's Congress. After the fall of Gaddafi and the transfer of government from the interim

National Transitional Council The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...

to the elected General National Congress, the previous shabiyat and Basic People's Congress system was deemed inappropriate, and a revised system was authorized with governorates (''muhafazat'') as the primary division and districts (''baladiyat'') as their subdivision, with baladiyat having local councils. This was implemented in part by the Council of Ministers with resolution No. 180 in July 2013, creating the baladiyah. There were originally ninety-nine baladiyat listed for Libya, but by March 2015 that number had grown to 108. The first-level administration subdivisions, the governorates (''muhafazat''), have yet to be created due to a vested interest in maintaining decentralized governance, and the continuing

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

1988

The table hereunder lists the old twenty-five baladiyat in alphabetical order with a link to each one and numbered to be located on the map. Note that each district linked may be both a baladiyah and a shabiyah. The many changes may not always be reflected in the linked article.

2013

Below is a list of the 99 baladiyat in Libya as created July 2013.

References

{{Reflist Municipalities of Libya (1983–1995) Subdivisions of Libya

History

1988

2013

See also

References