Antigua and Barbuda has not given up on its plans to drop the British Monarch as its head of state.
The government’s position on becoming a republic was communicated yesterday following Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s return to Antigua and Barbuda after attending the coronation of King Charles III in London on May 6.
The issue of becoming a republic was discussed at cabinet on Wednesday.
A statement from cabinet said: “Despite their participation, the Head of Government reiterated his administration’s determination to bring about a Republican form of Government, rather than continue ad infinitum the constitutional monarchy as now exists.”
Yesterday, Ambassador Lionel Hurst, Chief of Staff at the Prime Minister’s Office, said a referendum will be held sometime in the future but he could not give a timeframe.
King Charles III is the head of state of Antigua and Barbuda and 14 independent states, which are referred to as Commonwealth Realms.
Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Belize and St Vincent and the Grenadines have expressed their intention to drop the British Monarch as head of state.
Apart from dropping the monarch, Hurst said the Gaston Browne Administration is hoping citizens “would be wise enough sometime in the future” to vote in favour of stripping the London-based Privy Council of its powers as Antigua and Barbuda’s apex court in favour of the Caribbean Court of Justice.