Though of little experience in politics, Wyclef flew out of his native Haiti on Friday as clouds gathered over his presidential bid announced some hours earlier.
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FROM HAITI:
Just after the natural disaster that displaced thousands of Haitians, they country is set for another election.
The Grammy-winning former Fugees frontman, Wyclef Jean last night declared his intention to rule over his native country, Haiti.
Though of little experience in politics, Wyclef flew out of his native Haiti on Friday as clouds gathered over his presidential bid announced some hours earlier.
“I am leaving because of family obligations, but I will return in several weeks to enter the electoral campaign,” Wyclef told reporters at Port-au-Prince airport.
“I will not abandon this movement, because the young and the university students are with me. I thank them, as well as the people who were with me yesterday,” said Jean.
“The United States has (President Barack Obama), here you’re going to have Wyclef,” the Haitian-born performer said on Thursday after arriving with his wife and daughter on a private jet.
However, caught in a race that has 14 candidates already, Jean has started hitting obstacles as many influential figures in the Caribbean nation, which is infamous for turbulent politics, are less awestruck.
Questions are being asked about his suitability for pulling Haiti back from disaster or even whether he is eligible to run. Haiti’s constitution requires candidates live at least five years in Haiti.
Jean’s family emigrated to New York when he was a child, and the decision is now left for the electoral board to decide on his eligibility or not.
He is also facing the obstacle of several financial misappropriation ranging from tax evasion and fraud. Earlier this year, Jean broke down in tears after denying that the foundation, Yele Haiti Foundation, siphoned off charity money that could have gone to the hundreds of thousands of people left destitute by the January 12 earthquake.
Wyclef Jean Crying over allegation of funds misappropriation
He faces more civil allegations back in his resident country, United States, according to The Smoking Gun website, which reports that Jean is owing US tax authorities more than $US2.1 million.
In the midst of all those questions, Jean still has to persuade skeptics that he has the skills to lead and not just charisma, as Sean Penn, outspoken Hollywood actor, who runs a tent city in Haiti for people made homeless by the earthquake, greeted Jean’s campaign launch with a stinging rebuke.
“He has been virtually silent. For those of us in Haiti, he has been a non-presence,” Penn said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
“So, I want to see someone who is really, really willing to sacrifice for their 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 (was) a very obscene demonstration.”
Jean faces more stiff opposition as one of his mates on former Fugees band, Pras, gave him the cold shoulder, saying he had endorsed another candidate, Michel Martelly, “because he is the most competent candidate for the job”.
