During Monday’s sitting of parliament, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves proposed to remove the Queen as head of state and replace her with a non-executive president through a single-item referendum.
“As of today, we are 12 years away from the last referendum. I am prepared, if the opposition agrees today, to put one question in a referendum: to have a homegrown president, a non-executive president, as outlined in the proposed constitution, and let’s go with that one issue to the people to complete the national democratic task”.
Although Gonsalves is proposing a single-item referendum, he says he would only pursue it if bipartisan support was forthcoming.
In 2009, the Caribbean island held a referendum in which replacing the Queen as head of state was on the ballot. However, it was rejected by over 55 percent of voters.
