{"id":10503,"date":"2022-07-26T09:30:57","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/?p=10503"},"modified":"2022-07-26T09:30:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:30:57","slug":"gonsalves-proposes-referendum-to-remove-queen-as-head-of-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/26\/gonsalves-proposes-referendum-to-remove-queen-as-head-of-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Gonsalves Proposes Referendum To Remove Queen As Head Of State"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTOWN \u2013 Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Monday proposed a single-item referendum asking the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines to decide whether or not to replace Britain\u2019s Queen Elizabeth with a non-executive, home-grown president as head of state.<\/p>\n

But Gonsalves told Parliament that he would only pursue the referendum if there is bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell you this. I am prepared, if the opposition agrees today, before the end of the year or early next year to put one question in a referendum: to have a home-grown president in the manner in which I\u2019ve just described, a non-executive president, and as was laid out in the proposed constitution, and let us go with that one single issue to the people to complete the national democratic task,\u201d Gonsalves said.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Vincentians overwhelmingly rejected the proposed revised constitution with 29 019 \u201cno\u201d votes and 22 493 \u201cyes\u201d votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree that we are now 12 years away from the referendum,\u201d said Gonsalves, who had previously said that he would leave the question of constitutional reform to future leaders.<\/p>\n

On November 30, last year, Barbados removed the Queen of England as its head of state, selecting\u00a0Dame Sandra Mason as its first local head of state.<\/p>\n

Earlier, opposition lawmaker, Major St Clair Leacock, who is a vice-president of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) noted that Gonsalves had recently received the highest national award from the Cuban government.<\/p>\n

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He said this raises the question of national awards or rewards for Vincentians for meritorious service.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhat is stopping us?\u201d Leacock said.<\/p>\n

Gonsalves said also that if there is bipartisan support for the referendum a committee will also be set up to establish national honours, calling further for a simultaneous establishment of a body \u201cto carry out a process of decolonisation in names.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe change the name of Victoria Park. We change the name of Higginson Street and other places. Murrays Road, cause is a colonial administrator. And we do that, especially at this time of fresh hope\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonsalves also suggested that at the same time the country would go forward with the recommendation to name as national heroes, George Agustus McIntosh, Ebenezer Theodore Joshua, Robert Milton Cato, and JP Eustace.<\/p>\n

He suggested that there be \u201call party unity\u201d on this, though the law does not require it. \u00a0(CMC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTOWN \u2013 Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Monday proposed a single-item referendum asking the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines to decide whether or not to replace Britain\u2019s Queen Elizabeth with a non-executive, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-regional-news"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?fit=768%2C521&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?fit=768%2C521&ssl=1",768,521,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg",768,521,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg",768,521,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?fit=300%2C204&ssl=1",300,204,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?fit=768%2C521&ssl=1",768,521,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?fit=768%2C521&ssl=1",768,521,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?fit=768%2C521&ssl=1",768,521,true],"mh-magazine-slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?resize=768%2C438&ssl=1",768,438,true],"mh-magazine-content":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?resize=678%2C381&ssl=1",678,381,true],"mh-magazine-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?resize=678%2C509&ssl=1",678,509,true],"mh-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?resize=326%2C245&ssl=1",326,245,true],"mh-magazine-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Queen-Elizabeth-768x521-1.jpg?resize=80%2C60&ssl=1",80,60,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Regional News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"KINGSTOWN \u2013 Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Monday proposed a single-item referendum asking the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines to decide whether or not to replace Britain\u2019s Queen Elizabeth with a non-executive, [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10505,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503\/revisions\/10505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}