Artist News

Wyclef Jean in hiding after death threats

By | Published on Thursday 19 August 2010

Wyclef Jean has gone into hiding in Haiti after receiving death threats following the announcement of his intent to run in the election for the country’s new president. He is currently waiting for electoral officials to confirm his eligibility to stand – an announcement that was due on Tuesday but has now been delayed until tomorrow as a number of candidates apparently remain under review.

In a series of emails to Associated Press, Jean said that he had not obeyed instructions in the threats telling him to leave Haiti, but was nonetheless in a secret location in the country. As for the pending decision on whether he could stand in the election or not, he said that “the laws of the Haitian constitution must be respected” but added that his lawyers were already at the electoral commission’s offices waiting to argue his case, if necessary.

As previously reported, Wyclef Jean officially announced his intention to run in the upcoming Haitian presidential election in the country’s capital city of Port-au-Prince earlier this month, after weeks of rumours.

After registering to stand as a candidate for the Viv Ansanm party at an electoral office in the city, Jean told cheering supporters: “I would like to tell President Barack Obama that the United States has Obama and Haiti has Wyclef Jean. This is the only president who will dance when Creole hip hop is being played”.

If his application is approved, it already looks certain that he will win. However, according to constitutional rules, potential presidential candidates must have lived in Haiti for five consecutive years and never had foreign citizenship. Jean moved to the US as a child, still lives there and holds a US passport. But he says his work as “ambassador-at-large” for the country, a position given to him by outgoing president Rene Preval in 2007 after several years of work supporting the country’s youth, exempts him from these requirements.



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