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Anti-monarchist movements are sweeping the Commonwealth as many of the 14 overseas countries where King Charles III is head of state plan to hold referendums.
Among them is Jamaica, where Prime Minister Andrew Holness wants to hold a vote this year amid a mounting push to become an independent country. He was pictured last night meeting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at a film premiere in Kingston.
Barbados ditched the monarchy in 2021 – while Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and the Bahamas are others expressing an interest in cutting ties with the British crown.
When he assumed the crown on his mother’s death, Charles became head of state not only of Britain but 14 other realms – also including Canada and Australia.
But a poll by Lord Ashcroft published in the Daily Mail last year found nearly half of the realms would vote to become republics if a referendum was held at the time.Â
Antigua and Barbuda’s PM Gaston Browne has previously said he wants a referendum by 2025, while the Bahamas PM Phillip Davis is calling for the same – and Belize’s Johnny Briceño has insisted the country is ‘quite likely’ to become a republic.
The Saint Kitts and Nevis PM Terrance Drew wants a referendum during his leadership, while Saint Vincent and the Grenadines PM Ralph Gonsalves has been calling for a new referendum after one in 2009 failed to pass.
In Australia, the government indicated earlier this month that plans for a referendum had been put on hold, with a minister saying such a vote was ‘not a priority’ and there is ‘no timeline’ for it.
This is despite the idea of a vote being a longstanding policy of the country’s PM Anthony Albanese. Australia is expecting a visit from Charles later this year.
Canada has no plans for a referendum at this stage, while New Zealand has no immediate plans to pursue separation from the monarchy.
Other realms not believed to be pushing for a referendum at this stage include Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia and the Solomon Islands.
Tuvalu is also not thought to have plans for a new referendum after one in 2008 failed to pass.
In Jamaica yesterday, Meghan and Harry – who revealed they were stepping down as senior royals in January 2020 – stood with Mr Holness and his wife Juliet at the premiere of new Bob Marley film One Love.
In March 2022 during a visit by Prince William and Kate, Mr Holness said that Jamaica was ‘moving on’ and embracing its destiny as an independent country, later calling its switch to a republican model ‘inevitable’.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his wife Juliet last night for the premiere of Bob Marley: One Love at the Carib Theatre in Kingston
Mr Holness reconfirmed this in March last year, saying Jamaica was ‘moving ahead’ with its plans to get rid of ‘foreign monarch’ Charles as its head of state, adding that ‘ambitious timelines’ were in action to progress towards the ‘road to republic’.
He also announced a constitutional reform committee that will assist in the transition.
Jamaica, which is a former colony of Britain, has begun the process to sever ties with the British monarchy, following in the footsteps of Barbados.
Its history of slavery and a plantation economy made some Britons wealthy but left many Jamaicans impoverished.
Jamaica first came into England’s hands in 1655 when it was seized from Spain, which had brought over the first Africans as slaves.
It gained independence in 1962 but retained the British monarch as head of state and stayed in the Commonwealth.
Waves of immigration to Britain kept the links alive as did an affection for Queen Elizabeth II, who was on the throne at the time of independence.
But even before her death in September 2022, republican sentiment was increasingly gripping the Caribbean region.
In order to become a republic Jamaica’s Constitution requires a 2/3 majority in both the elected and nominated Houses of Parliament and a simple majority in a general referendum.
A graphic accompanying a poll by Lord Ashcroft published in the Daily Mail in May last year
However, if it obtains a 2/3 majority in the elected House but only a simple majority in the nominated House it will require a 2/3 majority of the electorate in a referendum.
The Windrush scandal that emerged in 2017, in which hundreds of immigrants to Britain were detained or deported after living there for years, has added to the grievances of those in Jamaica.
During William and Kate’s visit in 2022, protesters held signs during the visit demanding the pair apologise for slavery – and at a formal state dinner, William expressed ‘profound sorrow’.
But he stopped short of a formal apology, as did his father, Charles, who spoke of his ‘personal sorrow at the suffering of so many’ in an address to Commonwealth leaders later that year.
Charles also acknowledged growing republican sentiment in some Commonwealth nations and said it was for them to decide their constitutional arrangements.
About 600,000 Africans were brought to Jamaica as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries to work on sugar, cotton and banana plantations.
The British government was involved in the Atlantic slave trade and reimbursed plantation owners for the loss of labour that occurred when slavery was outlawed in 1834.
Prince Harry and Meghan with Jamaica’s prime minister Andrew Holness and his wife Juliet
Research by the former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft last May found that of the 14 overseas countries where Charles is head of state, six – Australia, Canada, the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Solomon Islands, and Antigua and Barbuda – would vote to ditch the monarchy at the time of the poll.
Of those surveyed, 42 per cent of Australians were for a republic with 35 per cent against, while 47 per cent of Canadians wanted change with just 23 per cent for the monarchy.
Nearly all the other eight nations with Charles as head of state – New Zealand, Belize, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tuvalu – hang in the balance.
Only Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Tuvalu had significant majorities in favour of maintaining the status quo, according to the survey of 11,251 people.
