DJ COMMUNITY

WYCLEF JEAN'S BID TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IS REJECTED

Wyclef Jean’s Bid to Run for Haitian Presidency is Rejected

*Haiti’s electoral council on Friday ruled that hip hop-artist Wyclef Jean cannot run for president, ending his outsider’s bid to lead the reconstruction of the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation.

Council spokesman Richard Dumel said election officials have accepted 19 candidacies and rejected 15 others. The Haitian-born singer’s candidacy was turned down because he did not meet the residency requirement of having lived in Haiti for five years before the Nov. 28 election.

Jean, whose parents brought him to the United States as a child, has lived off and on in Haiti in recent years. In 2007 he was named roving ambassador to Haiti by President Rene Preval, an appointment he had argued qualified him to run for president of the country.

The 40-year-old former Fugees frontman was ensconced in a hotel not far from where the electoral council was deliberating. About an hour before the candidate list was announced, Jean and his entourage left the hotel without speaking to the press.

Read MORE of this AP report HERE.