Barbados elects first president, replacing UK Queen as head of state
CNN
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. In a statement, the government called her appointment a milestone on its "road to republic."
A former British colony that gained independence in 1966, the nation of just under 300,000 had long maintained ties with the United Kingdom's monarchy.
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