Come November 30, Barbadians will be swearing in their first president as a republic and embarking on a new journey.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced this to the nation yesterday evening, adding that contrary to some naysayers who said Barbados was not ready to become a republic, it would be done come Independence Day.
She was delivering the feature address during a cultural event in Jubilee Gardens, The City, to mark the Day of National Significance in commemoration of the 1937 Riots.
“On November 30 this year, our great nation which we love shall become a parliamentary republic. The Cabinet has accepted the recommendations of the Forde Commission, with minor modification, [and] our parliamentary republic shall have a non-executive president. [The president] shall be elected by the Electoral College of both houses of Parliament, and that president shall be entitled to serve initially for a period of four years, and thereafter can be reappointed for another term.
“We will make amendments to facilitate that transition to a new president to be sworn in on that day of November 30 of this year, and that in so doing, that we start from December 1 the journey of the settlement of the new constitution of Barbados, which will be the subject of extensive consultation and communication with the people of this nation,” she said to thunderous applause. (RA)
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