Wyclef Jean files for Haiti presidency

LONDON - Hip hop star Wyclef Jean has officially filed papers to contest presidential elections in Haiti.

The Haitian-born artist told a crowd of young supporters: “The United States has Obama, here you’re going to have Wyclef.”

A crowd of voters sporting red and white T-shirts gathered in the capital to escort the multi-millionaire artist as he filed his candidacy papers at the electoral council office, reports thesun.co.uk.

“We have to live together, work together to change Haiti, open more schools. I’m asking you not for money, but your power for change.”

However, actor Sean Penn, who helped out in the country after the earthquake, has slammed Jean’s decision.

He said: “He has been virtually silent, for those of us in Haiti he has been a non-presence.”

“So, I want to see someone who is really, really willing to sacrifice for the country and not just someone who I personally saw with a vulgar entourage of vehicles that demonstrated a wealth in Haiti that - in context - I felt a very obscene demonstration.”