In his New Year's Day address in 2013, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama announced that the flag would soon be changed so as "to reflect a sense of national renewal, to reinforce a new Fijian identity and a new confidence in being Fijian on the global stage". The change in the flag would accompany the adoption of a new Constitution, intended by Fiji's military leader (who came to power in a coup in December 2006) to establish a "one person, one vote", non-racial and secular democracy under military oversight. The country, a republic, had removed Queen Elizabeth II from its currency a few weeks earlier.