Music

Wyclef Jean announces run for Haitian presidency

by Ciaran Thompson

Wyclef Jean, once a member of ’90s hip-hop group The Fugees, announced on a Miami radio station this morning that he will run for presidency of the Republic of Haiti, citing the earthquakes early this year as his main reason for doing so.

“For the 250,000 people who died in the earthquake, that’s the reason we ought to see a change in the system,” Jean said speaking in Haitian Creole. “Bonjour Haiti.”

According to his publicist, Jean stepped down as founder and chairman of the Yele Haiti Foundation and now has until Saturday at midnight to file the proper paperwork with the national electoral office to be eligible to run for president. The Haiti native, born in a suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince, left the country when he was 9 and grew up in New York and New Jersey.

A nine-member electoral council will be set up to review the applicants and on August 17 they will publish the list of those who are eligible to run in the presidential election slated for this November. It is being deemed the country’s most important vote in two decades with the eventual winner faced with the task of reconstructing the island after the earthquakes in January that claimed an estimated 300,000 lives. It has been reported around 1.6 million people still live in makeshift camps.

Jean will apparently announce his formal run for the Haitian presidency tonight on CNN’s Larry King Live. [Miami Herald]