Wyclef Jean's Campaign for Haitian President Hits First Two Snags

(Aug. 5) -- So you want to know if Wyclef Jean will be the next president of half of a Caribbean island that was devastated by an earthquake earlier this year. It's a question a lot of people will soon be asking. But it also gets ahead of things. The better question is: Is he even eligible? Let's go to Article 135 (e) of the Haitian Constitution to find out:

To be elected president of the Republic of Haiti, a candidate must "have resided in the country for five consecutive years before the date of the elections."

Does this apply to Jean? Perhaps not. In this Time video interview between a suit-and-tie-wearing Jean and a not-tie-wearing Managing Editor Rick Stengel, the musician notes the concern that he has not met the requirement, then does not specifically deny it, citing as evidence that he has "a Haitian passport with a green card" as evidence. (Fast-forward to the 2:00 mark.)

Well, OK. But has he spent the past five years living in Haiti in any capacity?

An article in the Newark Star-Ledger tips its hand with its headline "N.J. resident Wyclef Jean is expected to announce run for Haiti president," but, more ominously, Jean's brother Samuel "is hopeful his brother's residency requirement will be waived because he has been a presidentially appointed Haitian goodwill ambassador since 2007." There is a degree of logic to this, in that if he was assigned to be outside the country, perhaps an exception can be made.

There's another wrinkle in Jean's political plans: his back taxes. According to the Smoking Gun, he owes the Internal Revenue Service over $2.1 million. In its coverage of the tax story, WPIX New York notes that Jean has lived in his New Jersey residence since 1998, which would seem to make it even less likely that he will qualify for the Haitian presidency without getting a special dispensation, a move that may prove controversial in a country whose last election was plagued by allegations of fraud.

If Jean has in fact resided in Haiti for the past five years and can demonstrate this, he would not only be able to run for president there but would also qualify for the IRS's Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which frees earners to "exclude from income up to $91,400 of your foreign earnings" and "exclude or deduct certain foreign housing amounts." So he's got more than one reason to put this question to rest.

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