President Wyclef? Ex-Fugee mulling Haiti campaign
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Singer Wyclef Jean is making allowance for a run for president of Haiti but has not decided whether to look for a five-year term as leader of the quake-ravaged population, the musician's family said Monday.
There have been rumors in opposition to some time the Haitian-born entertainer might enter the 2010 presidential contend against, ever since his 2007 appointment as ambassador-at-large for the Caribbean realm by President Rene Preval, who cannot seek re-election.
In a account e-mailed to reporters, the family said, "Wyclef's commitment to his homeland and its young men is boundless, and he will remain its greatest supporter regardless of whether he is member of the government moving forward ... If and when a decision is made, media demise be alerted immediately."
The letter was signed "The Jean Family." A spokeswoman concerning the musician confirmed the message's authenticity.
Jean, 37, was born in successi~ the outskirts of Port-au-Prince but left the hemisphere's poorest geographical division as a child and grew up in New York City's town of Brooklyn.
He told The Associated Press in a recent conference he intended to be involved in the Nov. 28 election, limit not necessarily as a candidate.
"Do I have political intentions? At this time nay. But what I do have is a movement — it's called Face a Face, 'Face to Face'," Jean reported. "The youth population ... we are going to encourage them to suffrage."
The singer has been active in recent years in raising currency through his Yele Haiti Foundation. The organization was widely criticized for alleged financial irregularities after the Jan. 12 quake, when scrutiny revealed it had paid Jean to satisfy at fundraising events and bought advertising air time from a television condition he co-owns.
The organization hired a new accounting firm from the allegations surfaced.
Jean, who said he voted for Preval in 2006, would not desire an easy road as a candidate. Haitian elections are contentious and ofttimes violent.
Dozens of candidates are expected to declare themselves by the Aug. 7 deadline. Preval's opponents acquire threatened to block the Nov. 28 vote if he does not repay the presidentially approved electoral council, which he has refused to work.
To enter the race, Jean would have to prove he has resided in Haiti on account of five consecutive years, own property in the country and have in no degree been a citizen of any country other than Haiti.
Whoever wins force of ~ face the gargantuan task of rebuilding a country devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake. Haiti has not had a functioning administration in decades and its presidents have only rarely completed a inbred five-year term — more typically being overthrown, getting assassinated, declaring themselves "president-toward-life" or some combination of the three.