Barbados has elected its first ever president as it prepares to become a republic, removing Queen Elizabeth as head of state. Dame Sandra Mason, 72, current Governor-General, was elected at a joint session of the House of Assembly and the Senate, and is set to be sworn in on 30 November, which will mark the country’s 55th anniversary of independence from Britain. Prime Minister Mia Mottley described the vote as a “seminal moment” for the nation. Dame Sandra is the first woman to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeals and has been Governor-General since 2018.
The Barbadian government announced the plan to move to republic status last year, saying “the time had come” for Barbados to “fully leave our colonial past behind.” The change had already been recommended by a constitutional review in 1998. With a population of about 285,000, Barbados is one of the more populous and prosperous Caribbean islands, with an economy that diversified from sugar exports into tourism and finance. Barbados will not be the first former British colony in the Caribbean to become a republic: Guyana took that step in 1970, Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, and Dominica in 1978.