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.