By Deb­o­rah Son­tag, New York Times

Haiti’s elec­toral coun­cil announced late Fri­day evening that Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip-hop star, had been dis­qual­i­fied as a can­di­date for pres­i­dent of his earthquake-shattered homeland.

No expla­na­tion was given. A spokesman for the coun­cil, Richard­son Dumel, fac­ing reporters who had been stand­ing vigil at the elec­tion bureau all day, read a list of 19 pres­i­den­tial aspi­rants deemed eli­gi­ble and 15, includ­ing Mr. Jean, whose can­di­dacy had been rejected.

But in a state­ment, Mr. Jean said he was rejected because he did not meet the require­ment of hav­ing lived in Haiti for five con­sec­u­tive years before the Nov. 28 elec­tions. Born in Haiti, Mr. Jean left as a child for the United States and now, based in New Jer­sey, trav­els often to his homeland.

The state­ment said his heart was heavy but that he accepted the deci­sion and urged his fol­low­ers to do the same.

“We must all honor the mem­o­ries of those we’ve lost — whether in the earth­quake, or at any­time — by respond­ing peace­fully and respon­si­bly to this dis­ap­point­ment,” the state­ment said.

Ten­sions had been build­ing through­out the day after the council’s deci­sion to reject Mr. Jean was leaked late Thurs­day but not con­firmed. Hun­dreds of Mr. Jean’s pas­sion­ate sup­port­ers had ral­lied in the Del­mas area of the cap­i­tal, chant­ing, “We want Clef, Clef is Haiti and Haiti is for Clef.”

The police and United Nations peace­keep­ing troops pre­pared for the pos­si­bil­ity of unrest after a rejec­tion of Mr. Jean’s bid.

The elec­toral coun­cil waited until long after dark­ness had fallen to issue its list of approved pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates, orig­i­nally due Tues­day. And it did so at its Pétionville bureau, and not at the office in Del­mas where the crowds had gathered.

After­ward, Mr. Jean, who had been wait­ing at a nearby hotel to hold a news con­fer­ence after the announce­ment, report­edly left the area to return to his home­town of Laserre, out­side Port-au-Prince.

His short-lived can­di­dacy, announced in the first week of August, had elec­tri­fied Haiti and drawn global atten­tion back to the belea­guered coun­try. It also drew scrutiny to the musician’s char­ity, Yéle Haiti, and ques­tions about Mr. Jean’s abil­ity to take on the enor­mous task of help­ing Haiti recover and rebuild.

All Fri­day, the Hait­ian news media dis­cussed the pos­si­bil­ity that Mr. Jean would be dis­qual­i­fied. But Mr. Jean issued peri­odic mes­sages on Twit­ter on Fri­day sug­gest­ing that the final deci­sion had not been made and that he, too, was in a state of suspense.

“We await the deci­sion of the Elec­toral Coun­cil, to see if I made the list as a can­di­date,” one mes­sage said. “As it is writ­ten so shall it be done!”

For a cou­ple of days, Mr. Jean had iso­lated him­self in a fam­ily home in Laserre, say­ing he had received death threats and felt safer there. On Thurs­day after­noon, he ven­tured out to see Pres­i­dent René Pré­val, prompt­ing spec­u­la­tion that the depart­ing pres­i­dent was ask­ing Mr. Jean to pre­vail upon his fol­low­ers to accept what­ever deci­sion the elec­toral coun­cil made.

On Fri­day, Mr. Jean sent a mes­sage to his sup­port­ers urg­ing calm, Hait­ian radio sta­tions reported. He also posted pho­tographs on Twit­ter of his meet­ing with the pres­i­dent: “This is another pic of me n Pres­i­dent René Pré­val from Yesterday’s Meet­ing. Very pos­i­tive. Smiles all the way.”

The can­di­dates approved to run for the pres­i­dency of Haiti include: Mir­lande Mani­gat, a for­mer first lady and uni­ver­sity admin­is­tra­tor; Yvon Nep­tune, a for­mer prime min­is­ter; Leslie Voltaire, an archi­tect active in recon­struc­tion plan­ning; and Michel Martelly, a musi­cian known as Sweet Micky.

The elec­toral coun­cil was sup­posed to issue its list of approved pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates on Tues­day, but it delayed that move in order to scru­ti­nize the eli­gi­bil­ity not just of Mr. Jean but of many oth­ers in the field of 34 contenders.

The deci­sion on whether to elim­i­nate Mr. Jean was con­sid­ered the most del­i­cate, how­ever. Despite his lack of polit­i­cal expe­ri­ence, Mr. Jean had been con­sid­ered a poten­tial front-runner from the moment he announced his can­di­dacy in the first week of August. At that time, he described him­self as hav­ing been “drafted” to run by the youth of Haiti.

“I didn’t cre­ate this hur­ri­cane, this tsunami you’re feel­ing in the last cou­ple of days,” he said in an inter­view before announc­ing his candidacy.

In an inter­view this month, Mr. Jean said he believed he met the eli­gi­bil­ity require­ments for a pres­i­den­tial can­di­date. He said he never aban­doned his Hait­ian cit­i­zen­ship; he holds a Hait­ian pass­port and an Amer­i­can green card, or legal per­ma­nent residency.

He also said he should not be dis­qual­i­fied on the basis of the res­i­dency require­ment because he is a good-will ambas­sador for Haiti, appointed by Mr. Pré­val with a man­date to rove the world.

Vladimir Laguerre con­tributed report­ing from Pétionville, Haiti.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/world/americas/21haiti.html?_r=2&hp