By Alice Speri, Chris­t­ian Sci­ence Monitor

Wyclef Jean’s lawyers announced the hip-hop star is appeal­ing the rul­ing that barred him from run­ning for pres­i­dent. The Haiti elec­tion commission’s polit­i­cal inde­pen­dence has been ques­tioned before.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Wyclef Jean is appeal­ing the rul­ing that excluded him from run­ning for Haiti pres­i­dent, his lawyers announced in a press con­fer­ence today in Port-au-Prince. Join­ing in the appeal is his uncle, the for­mer ambas­sador to the United States, who was another of the 15 pres­i­den­tial hope­fuls to be rejected Friday.

“Mr. Wyclef’s rights have been vio­lated,” said Jean Ronel Sen­a­tus, one of eight lawyers rep­re­sent­ing Jean.

The Haiti elec­tion com­mis­sion (CEP) gave no rea­sons for reject­ing the can­di­dates. It is believed that Jean was excluded because he has not lived in Haiti con­sis­tently for the past five years, which is a con­sti­tu­tional require­ment for all pres­i­den­tial candidates.

But Jean’s lawyers have argued that he is a reg­u­lar res­i­dent of Croix-des-Bouquets on the capital’s out­skirts, where he was born and raised before mov­ing to Amer­ica at age nine. “Mr. Wyclef has reg­u­lar papers prov­ing his res­i­dency,” Mr. Sen­a­tus said of his client, who left Haiti for New York on Monday.

The legal team said they will appeal to the Supreme Court, the Supe­rior Court of Accounts, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an inde­pen­dent body devoted to the pro­mo­tion of basic rights and free­doms in the Amer­i­cas. What this might accom­plish is unclear, since a CEP spokesper­son told the Mon­i­tor on Mon­day that, accord­ing to the Con­sti­tu­tion, the commission’s deci­sion can­not be appealed.

Accu­sa­tions of ‘trickery’

It is unclear what sparked Jean to ini­tially accept, and now con­test, the CEP rul­ing. On Mon­day he ques­tioned the commission’s legit­i­macy, say­ing he was warned that “trick­ery would be used to block me.”

“The Pro­vi­sional Elec­toral Coun­cil has proven that they have vio­lated the Con­sti­tu­tion for the ben­e­fit of their mis­tresses and their friends lead­ing a life of lux­ury with the people’s money,” Jean said in the state­ment. He later changed the word “mis­tresses” to “friends.”

Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques, head of the Viv Ansanm (Live Together) party under whose ban­ner Jean hopes to run, accused the CEP of act­ing under polit­i­cal pressure.

“This is not a tech­ni­cal deci­sion, it’s an entirely polit­i­cal deci­sion,” Mr. Jean-Jacques said at the press con­fer­ence today. “This deci­sion has been taken by those in power, because they don’t want him to par­tic­i­pate in this election.”

Wyclef’s uncle also to appeal

Jean was not the only one to con­test the rul­ing. His uncle and for­mer Ambas­sador to the US Ray­mond Joseph – who first announced his can­di­dacy to the Mon­i­tor – was also rejected, although his diplo­matic sta­tus exempted him from the res­i­dency require­ment. He and at least three more can­di­dates are also plan­ning to present an appeal, accord­ing to an inde­pen­dent web­sitemon­i­tor­ing the election.

Mr. Joseph held a press con­fer­ence with his lawyers shortly after his nephew’s, call­ing on the CEP to explain why he was excluded and promis­ing an appeal.

“This was an arbi­trary deci­sion that can­not be accepted,” Joseph told reporters, adding that he is cur­rently nego­ti­at­ing with the other rejected can­di­dates to present a com­mon front against the CEP’s decision.

The for­mer ambas­sador also called on inter­na­tional observers to fol­low the mat­ter closely, espe­cially as the Novem­ber elec­tion will be heav­ily financed by the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity, includ­ing the US. The elec­tion is expected to cost some $29 million.

“Your money can­not be spent arbi­trar­ily,” Joseph said.

CEP’s cred­i­bil­ity ques­tioned in past

Oth­ers with­out polit­i­cal aspi­ra­tions have raised con­cerns about the elec­tion commission’s legit­i­macy. “Haiti’s CEP, and con­se­quently the can­di­dates elected in its elec­tions, suf­fer from a lack of cred­i­bil­ity,” the inde­pen­dent Insti­tute for Jus­tice and Democ­racy in Haiti (IJDH), a grass­roots net­work of Hait­ian and inter­na­tional lawyers, said in a recent statement.

IJDH argued that the cur­rent CEP was estab­lished fol­low­ing improper pro­ce­dure, which under­mined its polit­i­cal inde­pen­dence. The group said that the elec­toral body has improp­erly excluded pop­u­lar par­ties and can­di­dates in the past, includ­ing for­mer Pres­i­dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s party Fanmi Lavalas. The party was excluded once again this sum­mer, at an ear­lier phase in the CEP screen­ing process, which left 14 par­ties off the ballot.

IJDH spokesman Brian Con­can­non says that Jean’s exclu­sion appears jus­ti­fied based on the res­i­dency require­ment. But he adds that Jean’s fight might bring over­due atten­tion to the elec­tion commission’s con­tro­ver­sial rulings.

“It is dis­tress­ing to see so much inter­na­tional con­cern over a can­di­date who is clearly inel­i­gi­ble and has never held elected office,” Conan­non says about the rejec­tion of Wyclef Jean’s can­di­dacy. “But the CEP has excluded Fanmi Lavalas from the leg­isla­tive com­po­nent of the elec­tions with­out legal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, so in the absence of a clear expla­na­tion for the pres­i­den­tial exclu­sions, peo­ple left out can be jus­ti­fi­ably suspicious.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0824/Wyclef-Jean-appealing-Haiti-election-ruling-says-trickery-used