Barbados, of course, has recently taken the republican route, as have 35 other former British colonies or dependencies. Indeed, of the 56 nations that are part of the Commonwealth, only 14 still retain the British monarch as head of state. The New Zealand Republican Party was even briefly (and unsuccessfully) involved in electoral politics in the late 1960s. And in 1994, then prime minister Jim Bolger suggested New Zealand should look to achieve republican status by 2001. In late 2009, Green MP Keith Locke had his Head of State Referenda Bill drawn from the parliamentary ballot.

Source: The Guardian September 14, 2022 23:34 UTC