Will abolish monarchy, Jamaican PM says but Prince William- Kate Middleton can…

Jamaica's prime minister Andrew Holness vowed to complete his efforts to end monarchy in the country but insisted that Prince William and Kate Middleton are always welcome to return to the Caribbean island despite facing protests during a controversial royal tour last year.

“They are always welcome to visit,” he said, praising the royals, while suggesting he would have liked to end the monarchy when the Queen died.

“I think there was always a strong love and respect for the Queen in Jamaica. The appropriate time to do it would have been on a transition,” Andrew Holness said. He insisted he had public support, continuing, “The truth is the recent polls have shown there is a tendency towards Jamaica becoming a republic. So over time the position has evolved.”

Earlier, a poll showed that 49 per cent of Jamaicans supported becoming a republic while 40 per cent in favour of remaining a monarchy and 11 per cent undecided. Jamaica is one of eight Caribbean nations that have retained their historic ties to the British monarchy.

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The three-time prime minister said, “We have started the journey. We have set indicative timelines. We would have wanted to be able to do this within a year but the process is not a linear one. So we are on the journey of public education. Then we will have a legislative element where we will table legislation which will have to sit in Parliament before it is passed for six months and then we will have to have a referendum.”

Without sharing a timeline for when Jamaica will become a republic, he said, “It all depends on how fast the process is. We intended to have at least passed the legislation a year from when we announced the formation, the start, of our constitutional reform process. But that has obviously been elongated because we had to engage in a long period of public education and public consultation.”

Earlier Jamaica's minister for legal and constitutional affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte criticised King Charles, saying, “A lot of Jamaicans had warm affection and identified with Queen Elizabeth II. When Jamaica became independent, Queen Elizabeth was already on the throne. But They do not identify with King Charles. He is as foreign as it gets to us. Plain and simple."

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