The legislation for amending Barbados’ constitution is now online. The changes are straightforward and as expected - references to the Queen, Crown and Sovereign are amended to “the State”, references to the Governor-General are amended to the president. The first president is the last Governor-General, and will take office on 30 November. All the powers of the Governor-General are deemed to be held by the president, with the reserve powers prescription set out (i.e. the President acts on the advice of the Prime Minister and Cabinet unless they have lost the confidence of Barbados’ parliament, in which case fresh elections are called).

One aspect of the legislation that is interesting is the restriction on politicians and former politicians from being elected to the office of head of state:

Disqualifications
30. A person is not qualified to be elected to the office of President if he
(a) is a member of the House of Assembly or Senate;
(b) was a member of the House of Assembly or Senate within the period of twelve months immediately preceding the date of his nomination; or
(c) is disqualified to be elected as a member of the House of Assembly by virtue of section 44 or any law made under subsection (2) of that section.

It’s clear a lot of the opposition to a New Zealand citizen as head of state is the view that the office would be occupied by a politician or former politician (e.g. “We don’t want a President Winston Peters!”), and a similar clause like this would prevent that from happening. We would probably need to make the “former” time period longer, say, three years or the term of parliament. That would prevent a Keith Holyoake type scenario where a sitting MP (and former Prime Minister) was elevated to the office of Governor-General; and of course, a requirement for the head of state to be elected by a 2/3rds majority of parliament would ensure any candidate is acceptable to both sides; someone like our Governors-General that is above the political fray.