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Wyclef to stand for Haitian presidency
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 4 August 2010
Wyclef Jean will officially announce his intention to stand for the position of president of Haiti this week, according to Time magazine.
As previously reported, the Haiti-born R&B star was appointed “ambassador-at-large” for the country by outgoing president Rene Preval in 2007, and has led various charitable initiatives to help disadvantaged youth in the country. Though, in the wake of the earthquake that hit the country in January, Jean was accused of irregularities in the accounting of his own Haiti-supporting charity, the Yele Haiti Foundation, and later admitted that it had been “poorly run”.
In a statement issued last week, after rumours of Jean’s planned move into politics began to circulate, his people remained tight lipped on the issue, saying: “Wyclef’s commitment to his homeland and its youth is boundless, and he will remain its greatest supporter regardless of whether he is part of the government moving forward. At this time, Wyclef Jean has not announced his intent to run for Haitian president. If and when a decision is made, media will be alerted immediately”.
However, in a new interview with Time, Jean said this week: “If I can’t take five years out to serve my country as President, then everything I’ve been singing about, like equal rights, doesn’t mean anything”.
He added that, at 37, he was unusually young to be running for the position, but defended his decision to move into politics now, saying: “If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another ten years before doing this. The quake drove home to me that Haiti can’t wait another ten years for us to bring it into the 21st century”.
Already a popular figure in Haiti, particularly amongst the country’s youth, it has been predicted that Jean would win a leadership election with little contest, though there is speculation as to whether he meets all the requirements of a potential leader.
