Barbados Has announced its intention to remove the Queen from the post of Chief Minister of its state and become a republic by November 2021.
A speech written by its prime minister, Mian Motley, quoted a warning Caribbean Errol Barrow, the island nation’s first prime minister, has spoken out against “colonialism”.
Speaking on the occasion, Governor-General Dame Sandra Mason said: “The time has come to put an end to our colonial past. Barbadians want a Barbadian state of the state.
“It simply came to our notice then.
“Therefore, Barbados will take the next logical step towards total sovereignty and become a republic by the time we celebrate the 55th anniversary of our independence.”
The country gained its independence from Britain in 1966, although the Queen remains its constitutional king and head of state.
In 1998, a Barbadian Constitutional Review Commission recommended the status of a republic, and in 2015 the then Prime Minister, Freundel Stewart, stated that “we must move from a monarchical system to a republican one in the very near future.”
Most Caribbean nations have had formal relations with the monarchy since independence.
Barbados will join Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Guyana if it pursues its plan to become a republic. Jamaica has also given the go-ahead for such a change, with Prime Minister Andrew Hollਸnes saying it is his government’s priority.
Barbados took another step towards independence from Britain in 2003 when it replaced the Privy Council’s London-based judicial committee with the Caribbean Court of Justice in Trinidad, which became its final appellate court.
In 2015, she said she wanted to move to a republic within a year.
