Barbados continues to make strides towards its own head of state. The Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, has nominated the current Governor-General, Dame Sandra Mason, as the first Bajan as head of state. This greatly simplifies the transition and is in line with most other Commonwealth countries making the change - in most cases, the last Governor-General is the first local head of state.

The head of state will be elected by the Barbados House of Assembly.

The Prime Minister also added some other points of interest:

“There is no change to the flag. There is no change to the name of Independence Day; there is no change to the name of Barbados. Barbados is Barbados. We’re not the Commonwealth of Barbados; we’re not the Republic of Barbados; Barbados is Barbados. We are also not changing our pledge.”