Election-year deadline for ditching the Queen
Published:Wednesday | June 8, 2022 | 12:11 AM
The Holness administration has signalled that the journey to break ties with the British monarchy and establish Jamaica as a republic will be completed by the time voters go to the polls to elect a new government.
This is the first time that the administration has announced a timeline for Jamaica to remove the Queen as head of state. The next general election is constitutionally due by 2025.
Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte told her parliamentary colleagues on Tuesday that Jamaicans would be called on to vote in a referendum as part of the final steps to establish Jamaica as a parliamentary republic to replace the current constitutional monarchy.
In her contribution to the 2022-2023 Sectoral Debate, Malahoo Forte explained that with plans to amend deeply entrenched provisions relating to Jamaica’s Parliament and the Queen as the country’s head of state, the electorate would have to give its imprimatur in a referendum.
“I have been looking at Jamaica’s attitude to referendum because we are going there and we are going there hopefully by the time the next election comes around, unless more pressing matters or something else overtakes [it], but that is the aim,” she said.
The legal and constitutional affairs minister also indicated that she will table legislation to advance the process at the beginning of the 2023-2024 legislative year.
And the process to achieve republic status will begin with the establishment of a committee that will, among other things, conduct a thorough and comprehensive review of the 1962 Constitution, including the 2011 Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedom. The committee will also review recommendations made through the various constitutional reform commissions and committees in the past.
Malahoo Forte said that she has written to Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding asking him to name two members of the parliamentary Opposition to sit on the committee.
But responding to the minister’s presentation, Golding said that the relevant parameters for Jamaica to become a republic have already been agreed by the two major political parties following extensive constitutional reform consultative processes over the last 25 years.
Golding also raised the issue of Jamaica adopting the Caribbean Court of Justice as its final court of appeal.
“Again, the preparatory work for this has already been done. This matter concerns the fundamental issue of access to justice for our citizens and is a logical adjunct to moving away from the British monarchy,” he said.
The opposition leader said that the matter should not be enmeshed in another process of deliberations by another committee.
Further, Golding said that the Charter of Rights was enacted in 2011, and important jurisprudence is already beginning to emerge from the courts as to the meaning and effect of some of its provisions.
“The Opposition is not persuaded that this is an appropriate time to embark on, and sees no compelling need for, a review of the Charter of Rights,” he said.