Haiti’s electoral council rules that singer Wyclef Jean cannot run for president

Haiti council: Wyclef Jean can’t run for president

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A spokesman for Haiti’s electoral council says it has ruled that hip hop artist Wyclef Jean cannot run for president of the Caribbean nation.

Spokesman Richard Dumel says the council has accepted 19 candidacies and rejected 15 others, including Jean’s. He made the announcement late Friday in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Jean’s candidacy had been in doubt over whether he meet the eligibility requirement of having lived in Haiti for five years before the Nov. 28 election.

Jean, whose parents brought him to the United States as a child, has lived off and on in Haiti in recent years. He says he can’t meet the residency in part because he has been a roving ambassador to Haiti.