Wyclef Jean has been definitively barred from running in Haiti’s presidential elections, the electoral council said on Friday, but the hip-hop star dismissed the decision as “propaganda.”
The council ruled last week that 15 would-be candidates, including Jean, did not meet the legal requirements for candidacy in the Nov. 28 presidential election.
On Friday a lawyer for the council underlined that despite Jean’s protestations since, the decision would stand.
“In the eyes of the law and the provisional electoral council [CEP], the list of candidates admitted to the race is final,” council lawyer Durand Jeanty said.
Jean dismissed the logic of the council that he was ineligible for the top office because he had not lived in the Caribbean nation for five consecutive years and suggested the powerful elite were trying to keep the diaspora out.
The residency requirement means “having residence or domain in Haiti. It doesn’t mean that you physically have to be in Haiti for five years straight,” Jean told CNN, adding that he had paperwork qualifying him “for everything.”
Jean lives in the New York area but spent his first nine years in Haiti. He traveled back to his homeland several times before the quake to defuse violence in gang-infested slums and help the most disadvantaged Haitians.
Early this week, Jean’s lawyers said the singer would appeal to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and Haitian courts to defend his rights.
Samuel Pierre, a lawyer for the Haitian electoral council, however, said there would be no appeal to its decision and that no ruling by the IACHR could overrule it.
The mandate of current Haitian President Rene Preval ends on Feb. 7. He has served the maximum two terms allowed under Haitian law.
The candidacy of Jean, a Grammy Award-winning musician, has raised the international profile of the polls — the first since a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that killed at least 250,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.
The rebuilding task facing the new president is enormous and the international community is concerned that US$5.3 billion of promised aid doesn’t go to waste.
Jean, who argues that his appointment by Preval as a roving ambassador for Haiti required him to spend time abroad but that he has maintained residence in his native country for years, hit out on Friday at the government.
“I feel there are parts of the government that have conspired so that candidates that are from the diaspora could never come back to the country and aid,” Jean said. “So we’re going to contest this because at the end of the day the truth has to be out.”
Jean earlier released a song to local radio stations accusing Preval directly of having been behind the decision to end his presidential aspirations.
“It’s not Wyclef that you have expelled, it is the youth you have denied,” the 40-year-old sang in Haitian Creole. “I know all the cards are in your hands. I voted for you to be president in 2006, why today did you reject my candidacy?”
Despite his anger, Wyclef urged supporters in a posting on his Web site to accept the ruling and said he would “continue to work for Haiti’s renewal.”
“I was inspired to run for president because I know Haiti can become great with the right leadership, and I believe I could be that leader; but, ultimately, we must respect the rule of law in order for our island to become the great nation we all aspire for it to be,” he said.
“Though the board has determined that I am not a resident of Haiti, home is where the heart is — and my heart has and will always be in Haiti,” Jean said.
In a market in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, customers flock to Ache Moussa’s stall to have their long plaits smeared with a special paste in an age-old ritual. Each strand of hair, from the root to the end, is slathered in a traditional mixture of cherry seeds, cloves and chebe seeds, the most important ingredient of all. Users say the recipe makes their hair grow longer and more lustrous. Local and natural hair products are gaining popularity across Africa as people turn away from commercial cosmetics. Moussa applies the mixture and shapes the client’s locks into a gourone — a traditional hairstyle consisting of
‘ONE FELL SWOOP’: Overturning a landmark ruling that said judges should defer to experts would ‘cause a massive shock to the legal system,’ a dissenting opinion said Prosecutors overstepped in charging Jan. 6, 2021, rioters with obstruction for trying to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election, the US Supreme Court said on Friday, throwing hundreds of cases into doubt, while another controversial ruling struck down 40 years of legal precedent on federal agencies’ ability to regulate critical issues. The matter was brought to the court through an appeal by former police officer Joseph Fischer, a supporter of former US president Donald Trump who entered the Capitol with hundreds of others in 2021. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors’ interpretation of the law would “criminalize
The US yesterday wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to enhance and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings —
‘APOCALYPTIC : An UN official said that Lebanon was ‘the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints,’ and a conflict that involved it would draw in Syria and other nations Israel on Wednesday said that it does not want war in Lebanon, but could send its neighbor “back to the Stone Age.” The border between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants since the attack on Israel by Hezbollah’s ally Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which triggered the war in Gaza. Fears those exchanges could escalate have grown in the past few weeks as cross-border attacks intensified and after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, prompting new threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said