Jamaica Aspires To Become A Republic From UK

In Jamaica they look at Barbados with a certain envy. When the independent Commonwealth nation said goodbye to Queen Elizabeth in 2021 to become a republic, several Jamaican authorities relaunched the process to do the same. 2023 could be the year for Jamaica to achieve full independence from the United Kingdom. Even if there are obstacles.

The Jamaican premier, Andrew Holness, is politically motivated by the move by Barbados who last year told Prince William and his wife Kate, on a visit to the capital Kingston, that he intended “to achieve the ambition of being an independent, developed and prosperous”.

The executive’s efforts to advance the Republican legislative process have run into a major obstacle: the People’s National Party, the opposition party which according to the alignment that governs Jamaica, the Jamaica Labor Party, continues to slow down parliamentary approval amendments to the main constitutional clauses.

Jamaica’s Legal Affairs

Jamaica’s legal affairs minister Marlene Malahoo said the minority was sabotaging efforts to advance the republican process by refusing to appoint her two delegates to the reform committee. Malahoo, at the same time, has promised that the democratic process will go ahead “with or without the participation of the parliamentary opposition”.

The government’s goal was to make Jamaica a republic to coincide with the 60th anniversary of independence, in 2022. But “the opposition slows the transition between the abolition of the constitutional monarchy and the establishment of the Republic of Jamaica,” he said. reiterated the minister. “Jamaica must be governed by a head of state, not by a UK-based monarch.”

Of the 12 former British colonies in the Caricom bloc (the so-called Caribbean Community), only Guyana, Trinidad, Dominica and Barbados are republics, while Antigua and the Bahamas have indicated a feeble interest in decolonization, without ever really addressing the issue. Jamaica, on the other hand, has had republican ambitions since the 1990s. But the process is long and complex.

“Hopefully it will take 9 to 12 months to pass the constitutional amendment bill to establish the Republic of Jamaica,” Malahoo said. “We hope to do it with the opposition, but if not, we’ll do it alone.” Perhaps exploiting the possible weakness of King Charles III of England, called to collect the heavy legacy of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.

This article is originally published on italiaoggi.it