Wyclef Jean after Haiti's Electoral Council rejected his candidacy in Port-au-Prince on Friday.
The streets of Haiti remained calm on Saturday, a day after the country's election officials ended the singer Wyclef Jean's brief, electrifying run for president, suggesting that the distraction of politics had once again given way to the country's struggle for survival.
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A decision announced late on Friday prevented Mr. Jean from being among the approved candidates. And though tensions had been building throughout the day, with hundreds of Mr. Jean's supporters rallying on his behalf and a large contingent of police officers on the streets, night fell and morning came on Saturday without protest or violence.
Gracia Thevenin, a businessman in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the capital, and a Jean supporter, said because the news of Mr. Jean's denial had started leaking out early in the week, people were able to digest it.
"Everyone expected it," Mr. Thevenin said, noting that it had been widely known that Mr. Jean had not met the requirement of having lived in Haiti for five consecutive years before the Nov. 28 elections. He left Haiti as a boy for the United States, where he was raised in Brooklyn. "Wherever you went, people said, 'It looks like Wyclef isn't going to be able to run.' "
Mr. Jean, the hip-hop artist and former frontman for the Fugees, had held out hope, sending out messages Thursday on Twitter that said he was still waiting for a formal decision. But when it came late Friday, he seemed prepared and accepted the ruling calmly.
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SOURCE: The New York Times
