Prime Minister Philip Davis on Friday stopped short of confirming that the country will soon have another governor general.

When asked by reporters, Davis said, "I think you will be hearing an announcement about those things in short order."

The prime minister spoke with reporters on the sidelines of an event marking the renaming of the Acklins Central High School as A. Loftus Roker High School.

He was asked the question amid reports that former Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt will become the new governor general.

Davis did not confirm whether she will be appointed.

The current governor general, Sir Cornelius A. Smith, now 86, was sworn is as the country's 11th governor general in June 2018, succeeding Dame Marguerite Pindling.

Pratt, affectionally called "Mother Pratt", has on numerous occasions served as deputy to the governor general and has frequently been spotted at various national and social events over the course of months.

The Nassau Guardian reported earlier this year that a majority of respondents in a poll conducted by Bahamian research firm Open Current seeking to capture the "approval rating of possible governor general candidates" said they would prefer Pratt to become the next governor general of The Bahamas over several other prominent Bahamians whose names were listed on the survey.

Five names were offered as answers: Pratt (who scored 6.28 on a scale of 0-10); Ruby Ann Darling (who scored 5.89); A. Loftus Roker (who scored 5.41); Bishop Neil Ellis (who scored 4.27) and George Smith (who scored 4.18).

Roker and Smith were members of the 15-member Bahamian delegation who negotiated Bahamian independence with the British in December 1972.

Smith died on May 26.

Survey respondents were asked, on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being strongly approve and 0 being you do not approve at all, how much would you approve of each of the following people as a potential governor general?

Pratt scored highest among males and females.

She was more popular in several other categories polled, including among people 18-34, among people from households earning under $30,000, and among people from households earning $60,000 and over.

The last constitutional commission, which was headed by former Attorney General Sean McWeeney, did not recommend that there should be any change in the British monarch as head of state and the Office of the Governor General as the representative of the monarch under a constitutional monarchy.

However, the commission said the government should embark on a process of public education to prepare the public for a possible change to a republican form of government "at some point in the future".

That was a decade ago.

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