Official: Wyclef Jean to Run for Haiti President

(AP) Singer Wyclef Jean has filed the paperwork to run for president of his native Haiti.

The singer had released a statement that he was resigning the chairmanship of Yele Haiti effective immediately Thursday.

The hip hop star was greeted by dozens of supporters as he arrived Thursday with his wife and daughter at an electoral council office in Port-au-Prince. The deadline to file candidacy papers is Saturday. He had been fielding rumors of his candidacy for years.

The residency requirement could put Jean's candidacy in jeopardy from the start. The singer - whose age was until recently listed as 37 but whose brother said this week he is 40 - left Haiti as a child and lives primarily in the United States.

In an interview this week with The Associated Press, the brother said advisers believe he will be excused from the requirement because he has held a formal, at-large Haitian ambassadorship since 2007.

The winner of the Nov. 28 election will preside over the spending of billions in international aid for reconstruction from the Jan. 12 earthquake.