Barbados announces removal of Queen Elizabeth as Head of State
Queen Elizabeth II is set to be removed as the head of state of Barbados by November next year.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced the Caribbean island’s intention to become a republic, saying it was time to ‘fully leave our colonial past behind’. She said: ‘Barbadians want a Barbadian Head of State.
‘This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.
Hence, Barbados will take the next logical step toward full sovereignty and become a Republic by the time we celebrate our 55th Anniversary of Independence.’ The country gained its independence from Britain in 1966, though the Queen Elizabeth remains its constitutional monarch.
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In 1998, a Barbados constitutional review commission recommended republican status, and in 2015 then-PM Freundel Stuart said ‘we have to move from a monarchical system to a republican form of government in the very near future’. Most Caribbean countries have kept formal links with the monarchy after achieving independence.
Daily Times reports that Barbados would join Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Guyana if it proceeds with its plan to become a republic. Jamaica has also flagged such a transition, with prime minister Andrew Holness saying it is a priority of his government, but has yet to achieve it.
Barbados took another step towards independence from the UK in 2003 when it replaced the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice, located in Trinidad and Tobago’s Port of Spain, as its final appeals court.
