Barbados elected the first president of the republic on October 22, officially ending the time when Queen Elizabeth II of Britain took over, 55 years after the Caribbean nation gained independence from the United Kingdom and joined the United Nations.
The Caribbean island of about 280,000 has elected 72-year-old Sandra Mason as its new head of state. However, only now, after the amendments to the Constitution, Sandra Mason will take the oath (on Tuesday, November 30), when the government of the country will no longer be in the hands of Queen Elizabeth II of England, as announced in October by the Executive Power of the Caribbean country.
Isabella II loses sovereignty, but relations between Buckingham and Barbados are not hostile. The Prime Minister of Barbados has invited Prince Charles of Wales to be present at Mason’s inauguration.
“His Royal Highness will visit Barbados to mark the transition of Barbados to a republic within the Commonwealth,” the office of the heir to the British Crown said in a statement earlier this month.
Sandra Mason was the first woman to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeal.
After being elected at a joint session of the House of Assembly and the Senate, Mason said that it was time for Barbados to completely leave its colonial past behind.
Barbados is not the first former British colony in the Caribbean to become a republic, as Guyana became a republic in 1970, followed by Trinidad and Tobago in 1976 and Dominica in 1978.
The rest of the United Kingdom’s colonies in the region, which are part of the Caribbean Community, chose a constitutional monarchy while remaining part of the Commonwealth (Community of Nations), which unites territories historically associated with London.
A constitutional monarchy implies that the British monarch is the head of state.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley expressed hope that the election of Sandra Mason as the country’s first woman president would lead to greater unity in the fight against various external threats that could affect the island.
In defense of the government’s decision to elect Sandra Mason as the first step towards transforming Barbados into a republic, the prime minister said elections are important for people to fight and cope with challenges like the pandemic and climate change.
Mia Mottley warned that the confluence of the pandemic and climate change was the perfect storm that eroded the stability and property of Barbados.
“We are absolutely confident in the confidence we need to meet the challenges ahead,” he said.
The Prime Minister noted that an island of 267 square kilometers, such as Barbados, cannot cope with the problems it faces in a divided state, therefore, in her opinion, an alliance is necessary.
Until now, Barbados has been a constitutional monarchy with a parliament in which Isabella II was the head of state and the governor-general as her representative in the Caribbean.
The population of Barbados is mainly of African origin.
Former Prime Minister Freindel Stewart announced in March 2015 that the country would replace the monarchy with a republic in 2016, which, if that happened, would coincide with the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence.
