At midnight on Monday, Barbados will swear in Governor Normal Sandra Mason as its first president. The Caribbean island will then lower ties with the UK, eradicating the British monarch as its head of state after almost 400 years.
The Barbadian parliament voted final month to switch Queen Elizabeth II with Mason, permitting the nation to lastly transfer past its historical past because the oldest colony of the British Empire.
The monarch has been its head of state for nearly 400 years, regardless of the island having secured its independence from the UK in 1966. Mason launched a marketing campaign in 2020 to make Barbados a republic, declaring that “Barbadians desire a Barbadian head of state.”
“Having attained independence over half a century in the past, our nation could be in little question about its capability for self-governance. The time has come to totally depart our colonial previous behind,” Mason informed NBC Information in September, in protection of the marketing campaign.
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Her Majesty had run, nevertheless it’s proper Barbados is ditching the crown
The Prince of Wales, who’s the Queen’s inheritor, has arrived on the island for the swearing-in ceremony within the capital Bridgetown’s Nationwide Heroes Sq.. The Queen will formally cede her place at midnight, November 30 marking the 55th anniversary of Barbados’ independence, upon which Prince Charles will formally welcome within the new period.
Regardless of the island’s choice to dismiss the Queen, the Prince of Wales has expressed the hope that the UK and Barbados would preserve robust relations, emphasizing the “myriad connections” between the 2 international locations.
Barbados is the most recent Caribbean nation to grow to be a republic, becoming a member of Dominica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. Whereas Jamaica has not formally moved to nominate a president, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that it’s dedicated to changing the Queen as head of state.
