Jamaica, Belize eye ditching King Charles

Jamaica and Belize are both on course to ditch Britain's King Charles III as their head of state and become republics, leading politicians said in interviews Thursday.

The comments come just before the British monarch, who ascended the throne after his mother Queen Elizabeth II died last year, is formally crowned at London's Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

Jamaica and Belize are former UK colonies in the Caribbean that have been independent for decades. But, like 12 other Commonwealth nations outside Britain, they retained the UK sovereign as head of state.

In an interview with Sky News, Marlene Malahoo Forte, Jamaica's minister for legal and constitutional affairs, said Charles's coronation has accelerated her nation's plans to become a republic.

"Time has come. Jamaica in Jamaican hands," she told the British broadcaster.

"We have to get it done, especially with the transition in the monarchy. My government is saying we have to do it now."

Malahoo Forte said Jamaica could hold a referendum as soon as next year.

She noted it has a "complex" relationship with Britain and becoming a republic would be "saying goodbye to a form of government that is linked to a painful past of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade".

Belize Prime Minister John Briceno meanwhile told The Guardian it was "quite likely" his country would be the next to quit the Commonwealth realm.

He said "there is no excitement" among his compatriots for the coronation.