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.
Suffrage and committee or congress membership were open to all Libyan citizens eighteen years of age or older in good legal and political standing.
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.
[2] By the end of the Gaddafi era, the General People's Committee consisted of the following sub-agencies, led by a cabinet secretary:[4] Notes: 1.