(ANSA) - BRIDGETOWN, DEC 28 - The premier of Barbados, MiaAmor Mottley has announced the holding of legislative elections, the first since the country abandoned the monarchy to become a republic, for January 19 2022. The Bridgetown newspaper The Nation writes it.
In his announcement, Mottley called on President Dame Sandra Mason to dissolve Parliament, thus initiating the electoral process required by the Constitution.
In a speech broadcast live on national media and on various social platforms, the premier stressed that the time has come to "recalibrate as a people behind a government and a leader", and for this "it is necessary to determine with the vote who should lead the nation" .
Finally, Mottley said that starting on January 3, the submission of candidacies for the electoral appointment, which previously should have taken place only in 2023
, will
begin.
Barbados, 430 square km for 270,000 inhabitants, celebrated its conversion into a republic after leaving the British November 30 last. It was the fourth former colony in the Caribbean area to make this step after Guyana in 1970 (just four years after independence), Trinidad and Tobago in 1976 and Dominica in 1978.
According to experts, it will not be the last in an inexorable disintegration of the Commonwealth to the advantage of China, which is gaining more and more power in the area thanks to huge investments.
The next country to choose to become a Republic could be, according to polls, Jamaica.
(HANDLE).
