Jamaica officially begins process of becoming a republic that could see Queen Elizabeth ditched as head of state by 2025
Jamaica has began the process of becoming a republic, which might result in the removal of Queen Elizabeth as the country’s head of state by 2025.
The head of the Caribbean nation’s legal ministry revealed to the country’s parliament that the procedure to depose Her Majesty will start soon, with the goal of finishing before the next election.
It was also disclosed that it will be incorporated in the development of a new Jamaican Constitution, which, if passed, will turn the island into a republic without a monarchy.
A number of critical votes are likely to take place in both houses of the Jamaican parliament, the House and Senate, followed by a public vote, in order for Jamaica to become a republic.
This comes after the Prime Minister of the island discussed the problem with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their Caribbean tour earlier this year.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness clumsily informed them that his country was “moving on” from monarchy.
‘There are unresolved concerns here,’ says Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness to William and Kate.
If given the chance in 2020, a poll found that more than half of Jamaicans would vote to depose the Queen as head of state.
Marlene Malahoo Forte QC, head of the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs on the island nation, told its parliament on Tuesday the move would show Jamaica’s ‘self-determination and cultural heritage’, The National reports.
She said: ‘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.
‘I am pleased to advise this honourable House that the work to achieve this goal, while being done in stages, has formally commenced.’
She added that a cross-party committee would be set up to look into the exact form the new constitution should take.
Ms. Malahoo Forte added: ‘The reform work to be done in order to achieve the goal of a new constitution requires cooperation between the government and the parliamentary opposition, as well as the seal of the people.’
There is now a growing desire to remove the Queen as head of state in the country, which became independent from Britain in 1962.
Back In November, fellow Caribbean nation Barbados transitioned into being a republic, replacing Her Majesty with an elected President.
Guyana, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean removed her as head of state in the 1970s, while Mauritius in the Indian Ocean declared itself a republic in 1992.