By Tamara Lush of AP News
In the span of a few weeks, hip-hop star Wyclef Jean turned the world’s attention to a little-known political race in a small, impoverished Caribbean country — with little campaigning, no TV ads and zero debates.
Within a few seconds at a hastily called news conference Friday night, Jean was barred from running for president in Haiti, presumably because he didn’t meet the residency requirements.
The 40-year-old singer-songwriter says he will stay involved, though in “a different role than I had anticipated it to be,” according to his statement Friday.
But the question is, how? Will he support one of the 19 candidates on the ballot? And will he help with the reconstruction of the earthquake-torn country?
Jean said little Saturday as he attended a church service in Croix des Bouquets, the small town northeast of Port-au-Prince where he was born. He was preparing to fly back to the United States where his wife and daughter live later in the day.
