A 2010 poll conducted by the Royal Commonwealth Society found that, of the respondents in seven countries, only half knew the then queen was the head of the Commonwealth.Ī quarter of Jamaicans believed the organisation was led by the then US president, Barack Obama. To be fair, confusion over who heads the Commonwealth is nothing new. The Commonwealth has 56 members – but only 15 of them continue to have the king as head of state. King Charles III is the head of state of the 15 Commonwealth Realms and the head of the international governmental organisation that is the Commonwealth of Nations. This is the body whose membership determines the competing nations of the Commonwealth Games, the highest-profile aspect of the Commonwealth’s work. What we usually refer to as the Commonwealth, on the other hand, is the organisation founded in 1926 as the British Commonwealth of Nations. The confusion may derive from the fact that the 15 countries that continue to have the British sovereign as their head of state are known as “Commonwealth Realms”. It would make just as much sense to ask whether Australia or New Zealand should leave the International Cricket Council and become a republic.įrom evolving colony to bicultural nation, Queen Elizabeth II walked a long road with Aotearoa New Zealand The implication that breaking from the Commonwealth would be a precursor to, or consequence of, becoming a republic relies on a faulty premise which joins two entirely separate things: the way we pick our head of state, and our membership of the Commonwealth. Royal meets republican: King Charles III receives Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Buckingham Palace on May 2.
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