Wyclef Jean to Run for President of Haiti

by Jordan Yerman | August 5, 2010 at 07:55 am

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Wyclef Jean Announces His Bid for the Haitian Presidency

After weeks of speculation, Wyclef Jean announced his intention to run for President of Haiti, under the slogan "Face to Face". Jean will hand over control of his Yéle Haiti Foundation to Derek Johnson until a permanent CEO is decided upon.

Now Wyclef Jean must file with the Haitian electoral office, and prove that he:

holds only Haiti citizenship
owns land in Haiti
lived in Haiti for five consecutive years

On August 17, the electoral council will make public whether or not Wyclef Jean is eligible to run for President.

Wyclef Jean to Run for Haitian President?

"For the 250,000 people who died in the earthquake, that's the reason we ought to see a change in the system,'' Jean told listeners in Haitian Creole on Radio Tropic's 8 a.m. show ``Bonjour Haiti.''

"[My platform] has four pillars: education, job creation, instilling security into the culture, and, how do we get our agriculture back?" he says.

Wyclef Jean would not be the first entertainer to hold a nation's highest office: Ronald Reagan was President of the USA, and Vaclav Havel was President of Czechoslovakia as it changed into the Czech Republic.