*A ruling by Haiti’s electoral council that disqualified Wyclef Jean from running for the presidency is final and cannot be appealed, a council lawyer said Tuesday.
The Haitian-born and U.S.-based singer-songwriter said on Sunday he had not given up on the presidential bid and would appeal against the council’s decision which rejected his candidacy for the Nov. 28 election.
Council officials said Jean, who left his homeland with his family at the age of 9 to live in the United States, did not meet residency requirements.
Jean initially accepted the ruling and asked supporters to do the same. He has since launched a barrage of accusations via Twitter, Facebook and statements to U.S. media against the council, calling it corrupt and politically motivated.
Samuel Pierre of the council’s legal department told Reuters that, under article 191 of Haiti’s electoral law, rulings by the election authority’s disputes tribunal are definitive and cannot be appealed.
“Therefore there is absolutely no possibility for Wyclef Jean to be added to the list of candidates approved to run in the next presidential elections,” Pierre said. “So it’s over.”
Jean was one of 15 candidates disqualified from running to succeed President Rene Preval, who cannot stand again after serving two terms. A total of 19 candidates — including two former prime ministers, a former minister and a former first lady — were approved to run in the presidential election.
Electoral officials said Jean failed to meet a requirement that presidential candidates maintain five consecutive years of residency in Haiti prior to running. The singer insists he presented documents to electoral authorities that demonstrate his five years of residency.
“I have spent half my life in Haiti going back and forth,” he told MSNBC in an interview on Tuesday.
“The electoral council is very corrupted,” he added, saying potential political rivals feared his presidential bid.
Jean has said some of the approved candidates failed to meet the residency requirement but were accepted nevertheless.
Pierre said the electoral council was aware some rejected candidates believed they could appeal against the rulings.
“This is a waste of time because, when it comes to electoral matters, the electoral council is the Supreme Court, meaning there is nowhere else to go,” he said.
Pierre said the council had not received any formal appeal from Jean or his lawyers, although they may have gone to another legal body.
I’m really glad that Wyclef is sounding off. Haiti’s corrupt political system has been ignored for far too long by the west. Starting with the Bush assisted overthrow of the democratically elected Aristide in 2004, until now, the corruption has been rampant.
I hope someone from the US government finally starts asking what is going on in Haiti. What type of democracy they purport to have?
Hope that’s not too much to expect from an Obama admin.
I guess there is very little the first man of color President can do for some people.
Does President Obama’s administration get anything right in your assessment?
@bartholomew if president obama isn’t doing everything & helping everybody & signing this bill & closing the oil spill & bringing the troops back & getting reparations for black people & cosigning people car and house loans & dropping his daughter off and picking them up everyday & curing cancer & aids all at the same time he is just not a good president….don’t you know that by now?? **oozin with sarcasm**
When the Congressional black Caucus asked Bush to intervene in Haiti in 2004, why weren’t there cries of protests, relating to him having a full plate doing all the crap that you just listed for Obama?
I’m pretty sure if Bush had ignored the CBC then, the same ppl would be cussing him out for not doing what is expected of him as a US president for Haiti. So why when someone asks the same of Obama you get so defensive?
In light of what we now know is going on in Haiti, would you have the same reaction if the CBC now asks Obama to do something, exactly as they did with Bush back then?
Somehow, I think the CBC wouldn’t even bother to ask Obama, knowing that he probably would diss them the same way he did when they told him there should be targeted help for blacks who are disproportionately affected by this recession. What did he say, “rising tide lifts all boats.”
But ain’t that a shame, that the CBC would feel more confident asking Bush rather than the first blk POTUS for help in lending assistance to a blk nation.
Hmmmm… Did I touch a nerve here? ‘Er’body getting in a tizzy over a simple question.
What’s wrong with the question? The US has a long history of intervening in Haiti, last time just six years ago when the Congressional Black Caucus asked president Bush to intervene. Beyond what Wyclef is going through, it’s well known that Haiti’s so called democracy needs fixing.
As Jean Saint-Vil, the Ottawa-based Haitian writer and activist said, “the very fact that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family have to stay in South Africa during this period of need of Haiti tells you that what is being reinforced in Haiti is not democracy, but rather the rule by minority, so that the interests of the rich Haitians can be protected, like you saw in those reports.”
I don’t see why everybody losing their damn minds over a simple question. I didn’t ask y’all what all Obama has done. Can we stick to the topic at hand?
Trying to rectify Haiti’s broken democracy.
Is that too much to expect from an Obama admin?
If so, why?