Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne wants the debate about whether Caribbean leaders should be restricted to term limits back on the CARICOM agenda.
The issue has been raised previously in Antigua and Barbuda as well as in Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
“My comrades don’t like when I say this [but] I believe in term limits, because after a while people become so frustrated, when you’re in office for too long then they start to do things to literally hurt the country in order to get rid of the incumbent,” Browne said on local radio.
“I believe two or three terms [as Prime Minister]. Unfortunately, we’re not getting the level of maturity within the Caribbean that we can have that discussion in a serious way.
“Grenada placed the issue on a referendum to have term limits and they voted against it,” he added.
In 2016, Grenadians voted overwhelmingly to reject seven pieces of legislation, which would have reformed the constitution the island received when it attained political independence from Britain more than 40 years ago.
They voted by a margin of 9,492 in favour with 12,434 against.
In Guyana, the president is limited to two terms, likewise in Haiti.
In the Dominican Republic, where there is a history of dictatorships, Congress moved in 1994 to bar sitting presidents from seeking new terms, but lifted the ban in 2002, allowing them to run for four more years.
With the seeming lack of appetite for the subject in many CARICOM countries, Prime Minister Browne says he’s prepared to address the issue locally.
“So, I may have to use my influence within the [Antigua] Labour Party to get them to agree to have a term limit for the leader of the party, who ultimately could emerge as Prime Minister,” he said.
