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Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced this week that the Caribbean nation would become a republic on November 30, the nation’s 55th year of independence. Setting out the plans during a speech, the Prime Minister said the island will have a non-executive president, with mostly ceremonial powers.
The Prime Minister said: “On the November 30th this year, our great nation which we love shall become a Parliamentary Republic.”
She added further amendments will be made “to facilitate that transition to a new president to be sworn in on November 30”.
A 10 member Republican Status Transition Advisory Committee (RSTAC) will oversee a rapid overhaul of the country’s Constitution to allow a republic to be formed.
But Barbadian media have reported there have been arguments between Committee members over the transition to republic status immediately.
Government sources also told several Barbadian outlets that some members have called for a re-examination of the entire process that involves replacing Queen Elizabeth II.
A source added: “There is no constitutional document.
“They [Ministers] have not yet signed off on a constitutional document.
“They can’t go ahead without having a constitutional change.
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Arguing the case for a republic, Prime Minister Mottley, added in her speech: “Over the course of the next four months, we will start and complete the discussion to settle among ourselves what is that trajectory?
“What is the spirit with which we want to embrace both the Republic and the new constitution? Who are we? What do we stand for?
“And that conversation will be led by the Republic Transition Advisory Committee along with other members of civil society and the government because there must be a Charter of Barbados that is established and brought to our Parliament before November 30th such that we enter the morning of the November 30th committed to the Charter of Barbados that reflects the essence of who we are and what we stand for.”
Governor-General Dame Sandra Mason initially set out the plan in the “Throne Speech” which traditionally marks the state opening of the Barbados parliament in September 2020.
Dame Sandra referenced a famous comment by her country’s first prime minister Errol Barrow, saying he had cautioned “against loitering on colonial premises” adding “that warning is as relevant today as it was in 1966”.
Buckingham Palace said Barbados’s intention to remove the Queen as head of state and become a republic is a “matter for the government and people” of the Commonwealth country.
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