Singer ruled out of Haiti election

The bid by hip-hop star Wyclef Jean to become Haiti's next president ended yesterday after the singer's campaign was disqualified by election officials.

The move brings an end to one of the most bizarre incidents in the island's troubled political history after several days of speculation about the viability of Jean's high-profile but eccentric attempt to lead his former homeland.

Jean, who was born in Haiti but grew up and rose to fame as a singer with the Fugees in America, had launched his campaign in a blaze of publicity.

But within days he was said to be in hiding because of alleged security concerns and death threats.

His attempt to turn from singer and music mogul into national leader ended in circumstances every bit as strange as the rest of his campaign.

Haiti's electoral council gave no reason for not allowing him to run, neither did it make an official announcement on his case. Instead a council spokesman, Richardson Dumal, read out a list of 19 approved candidates and 15 rejected ones at an election bureau in Port-au-Prince. Jean's name was on the latter list.

However, the singer accepted his fate. "We must all honour the memories of those we've lost - whether in the earthquake, or at any time - by responding peacefully and responsibly to this disappointment," he said.

Jean said that he felt he had been disqualified because of Haiti's electoral law that states any candidate must have been resident in Haiti for five consecutive years. His supporters had argued that, as a United Nations goodwill ambassador for Haiti, he had been forced to travel globally for much of the time recently.

His detractors said that the singer had spent far more of his life in America than in Haiti.

They also pointed to growing scrutiny of the financial affairs of his Haiti-based charity Yele Haiti, which rose to prominence in the wake of this year's earthquake.

There had been speculation that Jean's disqualification might cause some form of civil unrest.

Supporters had gathered all day in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince chanting support. Riot police and UN peacekeepers had gathered and prepared for any outbreak of trouble.

But election officials appear to have defused the situation by waiting until long after dark before making their decision public. They also shifted the location of their announcement by doing it in the Petionville neighbourhood, not in Delmas.

Some observers of Haiti's political scene will breathe a sigh of relief at the end of his candidacy. Though it had generated intense publicity and focused the attention of the world media back on Haiti, Jean appeared to have few concrete plans on how to help the shattered country get back on its feet.

His campaign statements were vague and he seemed to have little grasp of governance.

- OBSERVER