Barbados elects first-ever president ahead of becoming republic

Barbados has elected its first-ever president to replace Britain's Queen Elizabeth as head of state in a decisive step toward shedding the Caribbean island's colonial past. Sandra Mason was elected late on Wednesday by a two-thirds vote of a joint session of the country's House of Assembly and Senate, a milestone, the government said in a statement, on its "road to republic." [...] Mason, 72, will be sworn in on Nov. 30, the country's 55th anniversary of independence from Britain. A former jurist who has been governor-general of the island since 2018, she was also the first woman to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeals. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called the election of a president “a seminal moment” in the country’s journey. "We have just elected from among us a woman who is uniquely and passionately Barbadian, does not pretend to be anything else (and) reflects the values of who we are," Mottley said after Mason's election.
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