newjerseynewsroom.com

N.J. singer will have to prove he's qualified

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Wyclef Jean has confirmed he's running for president of his native country. Jean told Time.com he is going to announce his candidacy for the Nov. 28 election just days before the Aug. 7 deadline.

"If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another 10 years before doing this," Jean says. "The quake drove home to me that Haiti can't wait another 10 years for us to bring it into the 21st century." Jean sees no contradiction between his life as an artist and his ambitions as a politician. "If I can't take five years out to serve my country as President," he argues, "then everything I've been singing about, like equal rights, doesn't mean anything."

According to rollingstone.com, on Thursday night Wyclef Jean, who attended Vailsburg High School in Newark and has a home in Saddle River, will officially announce his candidacy for the presidency of Haiti on Larry King Live. Jean traveled to his native Haiti in late July to assemble the required documentation for an August 7th deadline that would allow him to run for president of the devastated country in its November elections. Jean's spokeswoman confirmed he'll make an announcement Thursday night in Haiti; the country's former head of the country's Chamber of Deputies tells the AP the musician will run as part of his coalition.

According to NorthJersey.com, Jean's published age is 37, but his 39-year-old brother said that in fact Wyclef is likely 40, ascribing the confusion in part to their history as immigrants and Haiti's often confusing record-keeping.

Jean has spent most of his life trying to show the world the positive side of star-crossed Haiti. Despite his Brooklyn and New Jersey upbringing --- where he recalls weekly "beat up a Haitian" days at his schools --- he proudly embraced the nation, even when, in the 1980s and '90s, Haiti was an abject byword for boat people, AIDS and dictators.

The possibility remained that Jean could change his mind or be declared ineligible to run. The Courier Post reports he must prove to the electoral council that he has resided in Haiti for five consecutive years, own property in the country and have no other citizenship but Haitian. Past officials have disqualified some candidates on technicalities while allowing others with apparent ineligibilities to seek office.

Jean's brother, Samuel Jean, confirmed that the singer would announce his intentions in a televised interview from Haiti on Thursday after filing required documents with the electoral council.

The brother said that unlike much of the family, Jean has never held a U.S. passport. Advisers believe Jean's residency requirement will be waived because he has been a presidentially appointed Haitian goodwill ambassador, excusing his infrequent time in Haiti over the last several years.

"We all believe he meets the constitutional requirements and he can do it," Samuel Jean said by phone from his consulting office in Los Angeles.

The New York Daily News reports that the former Fugees singer's Yele Foundation has worked to raise funds to help the island nation recover from the devastating earthquake that destroyed thousands of homes and killed hundreds of people in January.

Jean's family released a statement last week saying "Wyclef's commitment to his homeland and its youth is boundless."