Singer Wyclef Jean expected to seek Haiti’s presidency

Former deputy Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques said that the hip hop artist will run as part of his coalition in the Nov. 28 election.

Jean spokeswoman Cindy Tanenbaum declined to confirm the report but said the singer planned to make an announcement tomorrow night in Haiti.

Jean-Jacques, who is seeking to return to the Chamber of Deputies, said he will be a candidate for a new coalition that calls itself Ansanm Nou Fo, which translates as “together we are strong’’ in Creole.

“Yes, we have an agreement [with Jean]. But he’s the one who has to announce it first,’’ Jean-Jacques said, declining to elaborate on their political plans.

Jean is popular in Haiti for his music and for his work through his charity Yele Haiti, which raised millions of dollars after the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people and knocked down most of the government ministries and many homes in the capital.

Rumors have swirled for months that Jean, 37, would run for president. The singer has always been careful not to rule out a run for the office and recorded a song “If I was President.’’

He was born outside Port-au-Prince but left as a child and grew up in Brooklyn.

Dozens of candidates are expected to compete for the presidency in the Nov. 28 election, among them Jean’s uncle Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador in Washington. Other probable candidates include former prime ministers, mayors, and another popular Haitian musician, Michel “Sweet Micky’’ Martelly.

Questions surround Jean’s qualifications for office. He must prove he has resided in Haiti for five consecutive years, own property in the country, and have no other citizenship but Haitian. Officials have disqualified some candidates on technicalities while allowing others to run.

In 2007, the singer was named an official Haitian ambassador-at-large by President Rene Preval, whom Jean supported in his 2006 reelection bid. Preval has served two non-consecutive terms and is barred by the constitution from seeking office again.

In recent weeks Jean’s Twitter feed has been awash with original and re-tweeted demands for transparent elections, proposals for reducing Haiti’s chronic poverty, and calls to defend camps of the estimated 1.6 million people made homeless by the quake from forced eviction.

Reaction to his possible candidacy has been divided as Haitians debate the pluses and minuses of his inexperience. The musician has a strikingly different profile than the generals, technocrats, and priests who have led it before, speaking little French and Haitian Creole with a diaspora accent.

“I will give him my vote. All these people who have been in Haiti haven’t done anything for us,’’ said Jean Leuis, a 22-year-old bread vendor.

Bosejour Leconte, 34, a phone card seller, thought otherwise.

“I don’t think he has the qualifications to be president. I’d rather vote for someone that has political experience,’’ he said.

Haiti’s next president will face an enormous task of rebuilding the country. But the office has never been an easy job: Presidents have only rarely completed a constitutional five-year term — most in history have been overthrown, assassinated, declared themselves “president-for-life’’ or some combination of the three.