PORT-AU-PRINCE -- After weeks, months and even years of steady speculation over whether he'd run for Haiti's head-of-state, international hip hop star Wyclef Jean confirmed on a Miami radio station Thursday morning that he has plans to run for the presidency. The main reason: the earthquake on Jan. 12.
``For the 250,000 people who died in the earthquake, that's the reason we ought to see a change in the system,'' Jean told listeners in Haitian Creole on Radio Tropic's 8 a.m. show ``Bonjour Haiti.''
Jean will step down as the founder and chairman of the Yéle Haiti Foundation, his publicist announced Thursday morning. Business leader Derek Johnson will serve as interim CEO.
In the hourlong radio interview Thursday morning -- streamed online for listeners in Haiti and elsewhere -- Jean said he was adopting the slogan ``Face to Face'' as part of a street, youth-oriented movement that goes by the same name.
Jean now has until Saturday at midnight to file his paperwork with the national electoral office.
Like the other candidates, he must prove to a nine-member electoral council that he is eligible to run under Haitian law. Among the qualifications: He holds only Haitian citizenship, has lived in Haiti for five consecutive years and owns land in Haiti.
That could be tricky: Jean, born in a Port-au-Prince suburb, left the country when he was 9 and grew up in New York and New Jersey.
Jean's ability to qualify will become known in the coming weeks. On Aug. 17, a nine-member electoral council is scheduled to publish a list of eligiblecandidates.
The presidential election slated for Nov. 28 could arguably be Haiti's most important vote in two decades. Whoever wins will be tasked with leading reconstruction efforts in the wake of the massive earthquake in January that claimed an estimated 300,000 lives. More than six months later, 1.6 million people still live in makeshift camps throughout the capital and in cities to the south.
A longtime advocate for Haiti, Jean was among the first responders here after the 7.0-magnitude temblor. Despite the charity work he has done over the years through his Yéle Haiti Foundation, he has faced accusations of mishandling the organization's funds. Jean conceded that the foundation was poorly run and he hired a new accounting firm.
Jean shot to fame in the 1990s as a member of the hip-hop trio The Fugees. When the band won a Grammy for the multiplatinum album ``The Score,'' Jean draped the Haitian flag over his shoulders as he walked onto stage to accept the prize. The very public gesture lent a sense of pride to countless Haitians at home and abroad.
Jean is scheduled to formally announce his intentions Thursday evening on CNN's ``Larry King Live.''
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/05/1762628/its-official-wyclef-jean-to-run.html#ixzz0vk4GjFvh
