Our association with the Crown, our membership of the Commonwealth, are matters of free and untrammelled choice by the representatives of the people of Guyana.

[3] The Duke of Kent opened the first session of the National Assembly, on behalf of the Queen, and gave the Speech from the Throne.

[1] The Queen sent the following message to the people of Guyana:[1] I have entrusted to my cousin, the Duke of Kent, the duty of acting as my representative at the celebrations of the independence of your country.

I send you my good wishes and I pray that God may bless and guide you throughout the coming years.Guyana was one of the realms of the Commonwealth of Nations that shared the same person as sovereign and head of state.

The prime minister was responsible for furnishing the governor-general any information he requested with respect to any matter relating to the government of Guyana.

[25] The governor-general, on behalf of the monarch, could also grant immunity from prosecution, exercise the royal prerogative of mercy, and pardon offences against the Crown, either before, during, or after a trial.

[27][28][29] Guyana's path to independence was unusual, because its constitution, while establishing it as a Commonwealth realm, allowed for a future transition to a republic.

Sir Hilton Poynton, permanent under-secretary of state for the Colonies, noted that "the most powerful argument" for accepting the arrangement was that it represented a compromise between Burnham's republican instincts and D'Aguiar's desire to retain the monarchy.

Her private secretary told Poynton, "Her Majesty's comment was that if a country fully intended to become a Republic after Independence, there was something to be said for including provisions in the constitution to regulate when this was to take place."

[31] In speaking in support of this motion, which was debated in the National Assembly in August 1969, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham said:[32][33] In the first place, though we accept the fact that Her Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of Guyana merely titularly and exercises no executive powers within her Dominion of Guyana, though we accept the fact that Her Majesty's representative the Governor-General performs his duties in the name of Her Majesty the Queen but again on the advice, which has to be taken, of the elected Ministers of the Government, one must confess that looking at the history of Guyana, looking at our own former connection to a relationship with the United Kingdom, a natural fulfilment of our history should be the cutting of even formal ties with the Queen or the Royal House of Great Britain.The National Assembly passed the resolution by an overwhelming majority,[34] and resolved that the country become a republic on 23 February 1970, the anniversary of the 1763 Berbice Rebellion.