St Vincent ready to vote on whether to throw out the Queen

As Trinidad and Tobago gets ready to welcome Queen Elizabeth as head of the Commonwealth, one of its CARICOM neighbours is set for a national referendum on a new draft constitution that will determine whether the monarch remains the head of state.

Electoral officials in St. Vincent and the Grenadines say everything is ready for Wednesday's historic vote to register a decision on whether the Independence constitution will stay or go.

"We have done the basics that are required...I think, by and large, we are on target,” Supervisor of Elections, Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

"I believe that by mid afternoon on Tuesday we would be ready to deliver all the election material to our officers and that they in turn would have the polling stations ready for balloting on the following day," she said.

Citizens would have 10 hours to cast their votes in the referendum that's being monitored by the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

The preliminary result of the referendum will be given on Wednesday night with a final count to be done the following day.

"If there is a major challenge then clearly we have to investigate. Other than that, as usual, we will make the tally. I have until Friday 27 November at the latest to inform the Governor General of the results," Findlay-Scrubb said.

The vote faces a legal challenge that could affect the outcome. An opposition group is going to court Monday seeking to have the court rule on what it says is discrimination in the allocation of campaign funds.

It accused the government of using state funds to run the campaign for the YES side while denying money for the NO side.

Read the story: St. Vincent group takes gov't to court over spending on referendum