A woman will be the first president of Barbados | The island will be an independent republic of the United Kingdom after 396 years

by time news

The former Governor General of Barbados, Sandra Mason, was elected this Wednesday as the first president of that Caribbean island nation. The former colony will be a republic, after 396 years of British Crown rule.

Parliament unanimously approved Mason’s nomination as head of state in a joint session in which the members of both Houses qualified his position by secret ballot. Mason, 72, received 45 positive votes and none negative.

On October 12, in a joint letter, the Prime Minister, Mia Amor Mottley, and the leader of the opposition in Parliament, Bishop Joseph Atherley, made the nomination that this Wednesday was only objected to by an opposition senator, who withdrew from the session.

Sandra Mason’s story

Mason’s proclamation will take place on November 30, Independence Day, officially ending his administrative subordination to the UK. A lawyer by profession, Mason has served as Governor General of Barbados since January 2018.

For several years she was a member of the Supreme Court and later the first Barbadian to serve on the Court of Appeals. Among other responsibilities, he was a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations (UN) from 1991, when it was created, until 1999.

Barbados ceased to be a British colony in 1966, pero maintained dependence on the United Kingdom, which occupied the Caribbean nation from 1625. In the last 45 years it was part of the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth of Nations that brings together the former British colonies. The link will end in just over a month, when there is no longer a Governor General, but a President, with the rank of Head of State, and British authority is no longer recognized.

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