THE BAHAMAS could hold a referendum on becoming a republic, according to the country’s Prime Minister.
The news follows moves by Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, and rumours that Belize are all following the example of Barbados and ditching the monarchy as head of state.
PM Phillip Davis says Bahamians will have to decide if the Caribbean country should cut ties with the British monarchy.
While speaking to reporters at the Senate, Mr Davis said he needs the publics support before moving ahead with the decision.
“The only challenge with us moving to a republic is that I can’t, as much as I would wish to do it, I cannot do it without your consent,” he said.
He added: “I will have a referendum and the Bahamian people will have to say to me, ‘yes’.”
He reiterated the power is in the hands of the people, telling reporters “for me, it always is but again it is our people who will have to decide.”
The death of the Queen last Thursday, has sparked renewed calls for Caribbean nations to transition into republic status.
Earlier this year, both Belize and Jamaica signalled plans to become republics.
In March, Minister of Constitutional and Political Reform, Henry Charles Usher told fellow ministers in the Belizean parliament, that Belize need to own their independence.
In June, a senior minister announced in the House of Representatives that Jamaica will transition to a republic by 2025.
According to the Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte, a Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) is now being established.
”The goal is to ultimately produce a new Constitution of Jamaica, enacted by the Parliament of Jamaica, to inter alia, establish the Republic of Jamaica as a parliamentary republic, replacing the Constitutional Monarchy, and affirming our self-determination and cultural heritage,” Ms Malahoo Forte said.
If Jamaica becomes the next Caribbean republic, the country will follow in the footsteps of others in the region which opted for a home-grown head of state.
Guyana became a republic in 1970, followed by Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, Dominica in 1978, and Barbados became the world’s newest republic last year.
In the early 19th century, Haiti became the world’s first Black republic and the first independent Caribbean nation, after overthrowing French colonial control.
Haiti’s independence is said to have influenced many subsequent rebellions by those enslaved across the Caribbean.
Following the death of the Queen Elizabeth, King Charles III is now the head of state in several Caribbean islands, including, Antigua, The Bahamas, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Bahamas gained its political independence from Britain on July 10, 1973.
Comments Form
2 Comments
The Queen is only a figurehead. These countries are independent. However it takes peoples minds off local problems if they purse this.
Her Majesty did not use her “soft-power” to help and assist the people; governments and or economies of the Caribbean, when England stopped importing Caribbean Sugar and Bananas in the 1980s, causing significant economic harm and economic decline.
A Royal four-yearly visit to the Caribbean, and waving at the children is no substitution for the active economic assistance the nations of the Caribbean require from His Majesty’s English Parliament.
England’s freedom from the E.U. ought to be a motive for Parliament; and the Prime Minister to actively seek economic; trading, political and cultural ties with her former loyal Caribbean members of the English Empire; 90,000 of which offered their life in defence of Her Majesty and the people of England during the second European war.
His Majesty and His Majesty’s Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers need to actively proclaim loudly how the Caribbean Nation’s will benefit from retaining His Majesty their King, and their titular Head of State.