Obviously many national constitutions point out the requirements on needs to satisfy in order to be eligible to become president. In the case of Haitian constitution, the following can be found;
"ARTICLE 135:
To be elected President of the Republic of Haiti, a candidate must:
To be elected President of the Republic of Haiti, a candidate must:
a. Be a native-born Haitian and never have renounced Haitian nationality;
b. Have attained thirty-five (35) years of age by the election day;
c. Enjoy civil and political rights and never have been sentenced to death, personal restraint or penal servitude or the loss of civil rights for a crime of ordinary law;
d. Be the owner in Haiti of at least one real property and have his habitual residence in the country;
e. Have resided in the country for five (5) consecutive years before the date of the elections;
f. Have been relieved of this responsibilities if he has been handling public funds."
Therefore, as one can note Wyclef Jean is already not eligible to run for President, simply because it is clear that he hasn't been residing in Haiti for 5 consecutive years since he was living in the USA and also even if he may own a property in Haiti it isn't his habitual residence, Therefore Wyclef Jean doesn't meet all 6 requirements and therefore cannot be eligible.
This seems to be pretty clear for any person who knows how to read, apparently not as Wyclef Jean is still going to run. Obviously he is going to end up wasting his time and money, unless the constituiton is going to change in his favour, which personally I doubt it due to;
- who is part of the Haitian Parliament isn't that stupid to vote for such legislation too change in order to allow a "foreigner" + their future competitor to be able to run for president; because let's face it the majority of people who run for such parliamentary elections etc... desire power and many would dream of becoming president.
- Many other foreign constitutions require that presidential hopefuls have been living in the said country for a long time and therefore one can say it is pretty much the norm and cannot be considered as unconstitutional. E.g. The US requires that for one to be eligible they have to at least have lived in the US for 14 years; the Philipines at least 10 years; Russia at least 10 years, Mexico at least one whole year.
However, let's imagine that Jean meets all the requirements, would he make a good president?
In my personal view, compared to the current president and how he handled what happened this January, it's impossible for Jean, and any other person out there with little education, to handle such a situation more disastrous than the current president. The current president has been successful in setting the bar so so low, that anyone can aspire to become president.
Since January barely anything has improved in Haiti, if it wasn't for the help from other countries things would be much worse as the current government just sat and watched! Obviously other countries cannot continue to help forever, since many have more greater problems to handle in their own countries!
Comparing what happened to Haiti with the 2004 Tsunami disaster, where more or less the same amount of people were killed and more countries were hit the situation was handled more smoothly than what happened to Haiti. Also a few days after Haiti, Chile was hit with a greater earthquake than Haiti and there wasn't as much chaos as there was in Haiti! By comparing to such situations it clearly shows the incompetence of the current government and the first thing they should have done is enact proper building legislation because if buildings in Haiti were properly built many deaths could have been prevented; Haiti 7.7 earthquake - 200,000+ died; Chile 8.8 earthquake - 200+ died!! The facts themselves explain everything.
In conclusion, whether or not Wyclef Jean succeeds in being eligible or not, I wish him or whoever takes the job the best of luck, since they are going to need it!
