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And the saga of Wyclef’s would-be presidency continues

Last Friday, the provisional election committee in Haiti released their list of eligible presidential candidates, and Wyclef wasn’t on the list. He didn’t qualify because he didn’t satisfy the requirement of living in Haiti for 5 consecutive years, which I think is a pretty basic and clear requirement.

At first, Wyclef seemed the accept the ruling, but by Sunday he changed his mind. He used the cheapest spokesperson around, AKA twitter, to announce that he is going to challenge the ruling, saying “Tomorrow our Lawyers are appealing the decision of the CEP. We have met all the requirements set by the laws. And the law must be Respected.”

To be honest, I’m not sure what makes me more uncomfortable: the fact that the Laws don’t apply to Wyclef, or how he capitalized random words. At this point, it seems like Wyclef is just doing it for himself. I feel like he could easily back his uncle, who is eligible, and still help his country out. And how would Haiti fare if Wyclef doesn’t respect the Laws and is elected? Would he respect other Laws?

Just for fun, here’s a great Wyclef quote from before he was declared ineligible:

Haitians “don’t need a local president, I think we need a global president, someone that can travel.”

And from the same article in The New York Times (yeah, yeah, don’t judge me), the author mentions that Pras, Wyclef’s fellow member from The Fugees, has endorsed another musician candidate who isn’t Wyclef. Pras forgot a few commas, and tweeted:

“Someone just said to me please I didn’t say it so don’t shoot the messenger, but he said Wyclef Jean is the Haitian version of Sarah Palin.”

Yes, you read that correctly. Someone out there, not the messenger Pras, actually compared Wyclef to Sarah Palin. I think Sarah might respect the Laws.

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