THE QUEEN COULD be set to lose over a quarter of a million of her subjects as the Caribbean island nation of Barbados looks set to become a republic.

Barbados has been an independent nation since 1966 but will now look at having an elected president to coincide with the 50th anniversary of independence in 2016.

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart told supporters in the capital Bridgetown that Barbados already acts like a ‘functioning republic’ and their constitution must reflect that.

“We respect (the Queen) very highly as head of the Commonwealth and accept that she and all of her successors will continue to be at the apex of our political understanding,” Prime Minister Stuart said according to the Jamaica Observer.

But in terms of Barbados’ constitutional status we have to move from a monarchical system to a republican form of government in the very near future.

Stuart notes that that a republican form of government means that “those who run the people’s affairs should be chosen directly or indirectly by the people themselves”.

“In other words, they should only be able to stay as long as you want them to stay,” he added.

Although the Commonwealth of Nations is made up of 53 member states, only 16 have Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. Barbados is one of these nations.

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