Wyclef Jean is appealing. Photo credit: JD Lasica

Wyclef Jean has announced he still has eyes on the Haitian presidency despite knock-back from the country’s electoral board

Not out of it the race yet is the message coming loud and clear from the Wyclef Jean camp, after Haiti’s electoral council rejected the entertainer-turned-politician’s presidential candidacy, on the grounds that he doesn’t meet residency requirements.

Jean is appealing the decision, and said he has the documents which show “everything is correct.” The Jean team is appealing on legal technicalities (that he was prematurely barred) and on the grounds that, as a good-will ambassador since 2007, he has had special dispensation to travel. Biting back at the ruling, Jean revealed that he believes the verdict speaks volumes about the incumbent political class: “[W]hat is going on here has everything to do with Haitian politics.”

Jean is no stranger to a bit of rampant self-promotion via social media and turned to his trusty Twitter account to announce his determination to fight on: “Tomorrow our lawyers are appealing the decision of the CEP. We have met all the requirements set by the laws. And the law must be Respected.”

The election board (CEP) decision to shut Jean out of the race has drawn condemnation from his passionate supporters, who consider him a new broom to sweep away the old, corrupt politics: “We’re ready to die for Clef, and without him there’s no election,” Paul Jean Augustine, a mechanic, informed Associated Press.

Pro-Jean protests on the island, which is still reeling from the devastation caused by the earthquake earlier this year, have been limited to a few tire burnings so far but Haitian National Police and UN riot police are braced for the possibility of more violent disturbances according to The Miami Herald.

“[T]he continued back and forth reflects a deeper Haitian rift,” suggested The New York Times, “Historians point out that the country’s political class has never fully made its peace with what Mr. Jean represents: the successful Haitian diaspora — financially helpful and mostly out of town.”

Jean’s opponents stress that being a successful hip-hop star does not make Jean necessarily fit for political office and that the island is already plagued by enough outside interference without a president who promises to deliver the American Dream to Haitians.