A CARIBBEAN nation will consult voters on becoming a republic – as its Prime Minister said the country was “not totally free” so long as King Charles remained head of state.
Dr Terrance Drew, the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, said he would begin the process of a public consultation on whether the West Indies nation should become a republic.
He told the BBC he would welcome an apology from the monarchy over its historic links to the slave trade.
St Kitts and Nevis were among the first Caribbean islands where English colonisers permanently settled.
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King Charles has visited in the past and on a 2019 trip received a tour of the imposing Brimstone Hill Fortress which had been built and maintained by enslaved Africans.
Drew also told the BBC he would welcome reparations for slavery.
He said: “We are not just speaking about a monetary contribution, because we are not acting like victims.
“It is about real changes even within the systems that are still affecting people of African descent in negative ways."
Reparations could include cancelling the national debt of certain countries or formal apologies.
Other Commonwealth countries, such as Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda are planning on holding referendums on keeping the monarch as the head of state.
Barbados was the most recent former Commonwealth realm to become a republic by a vote of parliament in 2021.
Last month, Buckingham Palace said it was co-operating with an independent study into the royal family’s links to the slave trade.
Prime Minister Drew welcomed that move, saying: “I think that acknowledging that... something wrong was done, acknowledging it and apologising for it, is a step in the right direction.”
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