The party has a “High Leadership Committee” consisting of 16 members, headed by the party president.[2]
At the first party congress, held in Benghazi, the former NFSL leader Mohammed Magariaf was elected president of the party.
On 9 August 2012, Magariaf resigned as party leader, after he was elected President of the General National Congress, making him provisional head of state. Mohamed Ali Darrat become acting president of NFP until Mohammed Ali Abdallah was elected head of the party.
In the Libyan Congressional elections of 2012, NFP fielded 45 candidates, including 22 women.[2] It received 4.08% of the popular vote and won 3 of the 80 party-list seats. Several of the 120 independents in the GNC are also affiliated with the party.[8]
NFP positions itself as a progressive liberal party promoting pluralism and democracy. It focuses on economic development, security, women's rights, and the welfare of the 2011 Libyan Civil War veterans and their families. It takes a hard line on the former figures of the Gaddafi government and declares that trying them in court is a prerequisite to national reconciliation. It favors a certain degree of decentralization, but rejects federalism.[2] It sees Islam as a broad guideline to the state's affairs, but does not mention the implementation of Islamic Sharia law.[9]