Shock Poll Shows Six Out of 14 Nations, Including Canada, Australia, Would Vote to Remove Charles as Their Head of State



TEHRAN (FNA)- Nearly half of the King's realms – including Canada and Australia – would vote to become republics if a referendum was held tomorrow, a bombshell poll found.

Research by former Conservative Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft reveals the true scale of the challenge Charles faces abroad, The Daily Mail reported.

It found that of the 14 overseas countries where he is head of state, six – Australia, Canada, the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Solomon Islands, and Antigua and Barbuda – would vote to ditch the monarchy.

Of those surveyed, 42 percent of Australians were for a republic with 35 percent against, while 47 percent of Canadians wanted change with just 23 percent for the monarchy.

Nearly all the other eight nations with Charles as head of state – New Zealand, Belize, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tuvalu – hang in the balance.

Only Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Tuvalu have significant majorities in favour of maintaining the status quo, according to the survey of 11,251 people.

It stands in stark contrast to Lord Ashcroft's landmark study on attitudes in the UK, published in the Daily Mail on Monday, which found support for the monarchy at home is rock solid.

But in a possible signpost to the future of Charles' reign, the in-depth analysis found that all the realms overwhelmingly want to remain part of the Commonwealth. Most also said the monarchy gives them "more stability".

Nearly all agreed that the Royal Family "needs to modernise in order to have any chance of surviving' and only three disagreed that The Firm 'should be scaled down and its cost significantly reduced'".

As Lord Ashcroft surmises, while at home "the institution looks secure for now", looking abroad "the picture is much more mixed".

A pattern emerged from focus groups that showed the Royal Family's waning grip in the popular imagination of the 14 Commonwealth realms.

One Australian said, "Britain is just like a distant memory. If anything, we're just following in the footsteps of whatever the US is doing".

And a Canadian respondent remarked, "The story of the monarchy is beautiful, but it's no longer real to the modern day".

Some 61 percent of Australians and 54 percent of Canadians agreed that the monarchy was good for them in the past, but no longer makes sense.

In Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Jamaica, over 75 percent of people agreed that "in an ideal world we wouldn't have the monarchy, but there are more important things for us to deal with".

The increasing apathy towards the royals comes after Barbados voted to become a republic and some critics described William and Kate's tour of the Caribbean as a PR disaster.

There is a growing republican movement across the Caribbean – particularly in Jamaica – but even most New Zealanders agreed that the monarchy no longer makes sense for them. Many countries seem to be upset that they get no tangible benefits.

A Jamaican respondent told Lord Ashcroft's pollsters, "To top it all off, even to travel to England we need a visa. We don't get any benefits, we don't get to travel to the UK visa-free, so why are we even part of it?"

In the Bahamas one person noted Britain's absence while the US and Canada helped with relief after Hurricane Dorian.

And one New Zealander said that, while the royals "probably work hard" in the UK, they "honestly don't know what they do" in their own country.

However, most countries agreed that "the King can unite everyone in my country, no matter who they voted for", with the exceptions of Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands.

Most agreed that the Royal Family "care a lot" about their country and that it "might seem a strange system in this day and age, but it works".

They were by no means totally won over by the argument for republics, with some citing worries about corruption and dictatorship under a presidency.

Others said the monarchy gave them, as young countries, a shared history. It would seem that there is much goodwill to tap into, and that for the most part the Commonwealth just feels left behind and distant.

Lord Ashcroft concludes that while it is for these countries to decide if they want to become republics, "there is a fine line between not campaigning and not seeming to care".

As King Charles is set to be crowned, the former Conservative deputy chairman says he and the British Government must consider the question, "How much do these relationships matter, and are we willing to invest in them?"