Libyan Jamahiriya

From 2nd March 1977 with the Sebha Declaration at the General People's Congress, the official name of Libya became the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (see meaning of Jamahiriya).

Libya, had been called the Libyan Arab Republic after Muammar Qaddafi and the Free Unitary Officers staged a coup overthrowing King Idris on 1st September 1969, until the official birth of the Libyan Jamahiriya on 2nd March 1977.

With the first atlanticist (NATO) aggression on Libya in 1986, the country was renamed, putting the word "Great" in front of its name, as it stood up alone against the western powers and defeated them, as they left without achieving any of their objectives in the April 1986 attacks.

Thus Libya became known as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya abbreviated as G.S.P.L.A.J. in English. It was also more popularly known as the Great Jamahiriya.

After most of 2011 was spent destroying the Libyan Jamahiriya by outside hostile anti-popular forces, the dictatorship regime which was imposed in place of the thousands of Popular Conferences declared there would be "elections" in 2012, but that all those who had any role in the Jamahiriya, would be banned from participation. By default, this excludes a huge number of Libyans, as the Jamahiriya was a direct democracy.