Prime Minister Gaston Browne and his wife Maria along with Governor General Sir Rodney Williams and his wife along with a large contingent of officials were part of the delegation attending the coronation ceremony in the UK.

“Despite their participation, the Head of Government reiterated his administration’s determination to bring about a Republican form of Government, rather than continue ad infinitum the constitutional monarchy as now exists,” Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister Lionel Max Hurst said at the weekly Cabinet press briefing.

He disclosed that a referendum will be held sometime in the future but he could not give a timeframe.

He said he hopes that citizens “would be wise enough sometime in the future” to vote in favour of stripping the London-based Privy Council of its powers as Antigua and Barbuda’s apex court in favour of the Caribbean Court of Justice,”

“So, we know the direction in which history will take us, and at some point, in the future, we can’t say precisely when we anticipate that there will be a referendum on this question,” Hurst added.