The Prime Min­is­ter of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da says the Caribbean coun­try will hold a ref­er­en­dum on whether to be­come a re­pub­lic and re­move King Charles III as the head of state with­in the next few years.

The for­mer British colony gained its in­de­pen­dence from the Unit­ed King­dom in 1981 but is one of 14 coun­tries in ad­di­tion to the UK where the British monarch is head of state. It is al­so a part of the Com­mon­wealth, a 56-mem­ber or­gan­i­sa­tion of most­ly for­mer British ter­ri­to­ries.

Af­ter con­firm­ing King Charles III as the King of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da on Sat­ur­day, Prime Min­is­ter Gas­ton Browne told ITV News that he planned on hold­ing a ref­er­en­dum on whether the coun­try be­comes a re­pub­lic in the next three years.

“This is a mat­ter that has to be tak­en to a ref­er­en­dum for the peo­ple to de­cide,” he said, adding that it is not mean to “rep­re­sent any form of dis­re­spect to the monarch. This is not an act of hos­til­i­ty, or any dif­fer­ence be­tween An­tigua and Bar­bu­da and the monar­chy.”

He ex­plained that it would be “a fi­nal step to com­plete the cir­cle of in­de­pen­dence to be­come a tru­ly sov­er­eign na­tion.”

Ques­tions were raised in March about the monar­chy’s con­tin­ued role in the re­gion af­ter the then-Duke and Duchess of Cam­bridge, William and Cather­ine, vis­it­ed three Com­mon­wealth realms—Be­lize, Ja­maica and the Ba­hamas —on a trip aimed at cel­e­brat­ing Queen Eliz­a­beth’s 70 years on the throne.

The trip was be­set with is­sues, where they were told by Ja­maica’s prime min­is­ter that the coun­try was “mov­ing on” and will at­tain its “true am­bi­tion” to be “in­de­pen­dent.”

Last year, Bar­ba­dos sev­ered its fi­nal im­pe­r­i­al links to Britain by de­clar­ing it­self a re­pub­lic.

Bar­ba­dos’s de­ci­sion marked the first time in near­ly three decades that a realm opt­ed to re­move the British monarch as head of state. The last na­tion to do so was the is­land of Mau­ri­tius in 1992. Like that coun­try, Bar­ba­dos has re­mained part of the Com­mon­wealth. (CNN)