By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

MAKING The Bahamas a republic is not on the agenda of the Davis administration, according to Press Secretary Clint Watson.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and a delegation recently visited Barbados and attended a ceremony highlighting that country’s highly publicised transition to a republic.

 During a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday, Mr Watson suggested that this won’t happen in The Bahamas anytime soon.

 He said: “This has been an ongoing conversation in our country since 1973, the next phase in our independence. You’ve heard a member of the Cabinet speak about his push to see it happen personally as an individual. It is a conversation we haven’t heard a lot about in recent years until we heard what happened in Barbados. But it’s obviously in the hands of the Bahamian people to decide.

“It’s not on our agenda right now. However, the Bahamian people can change that if they determine this is what they want to do. It would have to be something the Bahamian people request and put on the government’s agenda.

 “There is a process that’s different from Barbados that we have here in The Bahamas in terms of how that would happen. It’s a little more cumbersome than what Barbados had to go through. Based on our Constitution, it would require two thirds of Parliament agreeing to it and then it requires a referendum by the Bahamian people. There is a process that’s quite different from Barbados and that we would have to go through for that to be considered.”

 Foreign Affairs and Public Service Minister Fred Mitchell recently said he believes The Bahamas will eventually become a republic, calling that development his life’s work.

 “…Try as I might over my lifetime, I have been unable to fire up the succeeding generations on this issue,” Mr Mitchell said recently. “Perhaps they have more important things to do.”