Pop star Wyclef Jean can't run for president rules Haiti's electoral commission

WYCLEF Jean, the hip hop artist who launched an outsider's bid to lead Haiti following the country's devastating earthquake, has been told by the electoral commission that he cannot run for president.

The singer, who was born in Haiti and now lives in America, had formally registered to stand in the November elections but had been challenged by opponents. Under the nation's electoral law a candidate is required to have been resident in the country for the past five years, but the artist had hoped to circumvent the rule on the grounds he was already a roving ambassador for the nation, an appointment which had been made in 2007.

The electoral commission ruled late on Friday night that he and 14 other prospective candidates were ineligible, but they did not provide justification for the decisions.

Yesterday Jean issued a statement urging his supporters to remain calm and respond "peacefully and responsibly to the disappointment".

He said: "Though I disagree with the ruling, I respectfully accept the committee's final decision, and I urge my supporters to do the same."

The electoral commission approved 19 candidates and rejected 15. While rejecting Jean, the board approved two leading presidential candidates, former Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis and Yvon Neptune, who was the last prime minister under ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and who has been active in helping to co-ordinate reconstruction efforts.

Also allowed to run are Jude Celestin, head of the government's primary construction firm and the candidate supported by the current President Rene Preval, and Michel Martelly, a well-known Haitian singer known as "Sweet Mickey".

The electoral commission also rejected the candidacy of Haiti's ambassador to the US, Raymond Joseph, who is Jean's uncle. Preval is barred from running for re-election under the constitution.

Jean had apparently been aware that his bid would fail. The 40-year-old entertainer had been in a hotel near the electoral commission's office but left abruptly without speaking to journalists about an hour before the announcement. Dozens of police and UN peacekeepers in riot gear were stationed outside the electoral council office, but there were no signs of protests or unrest.

Although unsuccessful, the singer's bid is credited for attracting fresh attention to a country still devastated by the January earthquake which killed an estimated 230,000 people and left more than one million homeless and the capital, Port-au-Prince, in ruins.

"His candidacy certainly did shake things up," said Laurent Dubois, a Haiti historian and professor at Duke University."But it's still a very important election whether Wyclef is in it or not."

The decision had already been delayed once because of uncertainty over candidate qualifications.

Jean, who gained fame as a member of the hip-hop musical group The Fugees before building a solo career, had no political organisation, little following beyond fans of his music and only a vague platform, casting himself as an advocate of Haiti's struggling youth and saying he will ask reconstruction donors to help the country's dysfunctional education system.

He also has faced persistent criticism over alleged financial mismanagement at the charity he founded, Yele Haiti. Last week, Jean said he had received death threats from somebody who called and told him to get out of Haiti.

The winner of the election on 28 November will take charge of Haiti's earthquake recovery, co-ordinating billions of aid dollars in a country with a history of political turmoil and corruption.