A string of Caribbean countries, none more so than Jamaica, expressed serious intentions of dumping the British monarch as their head of state and switching to a republic after Barbados completed its own seamless process at a glittering ceremony televised worldwide back in late 2021.
Authorities in Jamaica hurriedly established a constitutional reform commission, charged with changing entrenched tenets in the constitution that normally would have prevented any government from making the change without a referendum and a two-thirds majority vote in the house.
But as the commission is moving to wrap up its work and hand its recommendations to authorities, the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has made it clear that it would not support any switch to a republic unless the governing Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) agrees to also dump the British Privy Council as the country’s highest or apex court.
The PNP wants Jamaicans to have access to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) instead of the British system, because that is much more accessible—attorneys can travel freely to Trinidad without visas to attend hearings. Keeping the British system would merely be a half-measure to full and complete republicanism, according to the PNP.
As it is, the PNP is talking with supreme confidence that it would block Jamaica’s switch to a republic because it is confident that it will win the 2025 general elections—so confident that it held its main party convention over the weekend, where all the talk about not supporting the government emerged. Party Leader Mark Golding said the outfit’s position is an entrenched one, not subject to change in any shape or form. The JLP would need PNP parliamentary support to make the switch.
“We need to decolonise Jamaica once and for all. We in the PNP have no interest in moving to a republic while retaining the King’s Privy Council in London as Jamaica’s final court. That does not make sense. Jamaicans need a final court where they don’t need a visa to go there, and where the costs are not way out of their reach. (The time has come) for a Jamaican head of state and the Caribbean Court of Justice as our final court. We will support both moving forward together. We have no interest in one without the other,” Golding told thousands at the convention. “I stand firm in leading our party in our mission of social and economic transformation to a better Jamaica for all our people. We need to break every chain that is holding the country back.”
There are 15 nations in the Caribbean Community bloc, of which 12 are former colonies. Suriname and Haiti are the exceptions, and Montserrat is still a dependency. Of this group, only Guyana, Trinidad, Dominica, and latterly Barbados are republics. Others—like Antigua, Belize, St. Vincent, and the Bahamas—have made noises about getting their own Black or brown head of state, but none has done much to effect any change in their constitutional status.
As debate rages on in Jamaica, the reform commission said it plans to recommend a hybrid presidency, with the officer-holder possessing both executive and ceremonial functions. Legal Affairs Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte told a recent town hall meeting that reformers are leaning in this direction because the laws are likely to be tweaked to make the presidency suited specifically for Jamaica and its local needs.
“At this stage, we’re leaning toward a hybrid presidency—not a ceremonial president; a president that will exercise a set of powers, some ceremonial, some executive,” Forte said. “We are tailor-making something for the Jamaican people. When we say goodbye to the king and we are establishing the republic, a number of questions will have to be answered: What kind of president? How long will the president serve for? What should qualify you to become president?”
The commission has been making the rounds in various parishes and communities, selling the idea of constitutional reform and republicanism to ordinary Jamaicans. To make the switch, local laws will have to be amended and a referendum, planned for next year, will have to approve the changeover.
Guyana, with its executive presidency, is the only one among the former British colonies in the Caricom whose head of state has such executive powers. Haiti and Suriname, the last two nations to join the bloc, also have executive presidents.
Forte even said that the idea of giving the office holder a seven-year run is being seriously discussed because it would insulate them and ease the stress of the head of state being reelected or reappointed during the same five-year cycle of a government and prime minister. “We’re hearing the views of Jamaicans,” she said.
