The Prime Minister of Barbados has announced Barbados will become a parliamentary republic on 30 November this year. The head of state will be non-executive and be elected by a joint sitting of both houses of parliament for a term of four years, renewable once:

"…that on November 30 this year our great nation which we love shall become a parliamentary republic."

The amendments to the Constitution of Barbados will be made so that the first president can be sworn in on the 30 November, which is Barbados’ independence day.

"Secondly that the Cabinet has accepted the recommendations of the Forde Commission with minor modification that our parliamentary republic shall have a non-executive president that shall be elected by an electoral college of both Houses of Parliament and that that president shall be entitled to serve initially for a period of four years and thereafter can be reappointed for another term,"

The Prime Minister concluded:

"...the notion that you can have as your Head of State someone that you do not have any opportunity to participate in the selection or election of their office is as anachronistic and offensive to the modern world in which we live as the notion that women should not have the right to vote which was exactly what it was in 1937. We only got that right is 1944."