King Charles speaks with Gaston Browne during a global warming meeting. (FILE PHOTO).
Mon 12 September 2022:
The Caribbean country’s prime minister has stated that Antigua and Barbuda intends to decide whether to become a republic within the next three years, which would result in the removal of Britain’s new King Charles III as its head of state.
“This is a matter that has to be taken to a referendum … within the next, probably, three years,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne told ITV News on Saturday shortly after a local ceremony confirmed Charles III as the country’s king following Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
The 100,000-member nation gained independence from Britain in 1981, but is one of the 15 nations part of the Commonwealth – a political association that includes mostly former territories of the British empire – that still share the United Kingdom’s monarch as their head of state.
Brown said becoming a republic was “a final step to complete the circle of independence to ensure we are truly a sovereign nation”, but stressed a referendum was “not an act of hostility” and would not involve retiring Commonwealth membership.
Browne’s pledge comes amid a growing republican push across the Caribbean region, with Barbados voting to remove the UK monarchy last year, and the ruling party in Jamaica having signalled it may follow.
Nonetheless, Browne – who is up for re-election next year – said he was not responding to a widespread push from Antiguans to hold a vote.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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