Haiti’s electoral commission said yesterday hip hop artist Wyclef Jean cannot run for president, ending his outsider’s bid to lead a country struggling to recover from the January 12 earthquake.

Former Fugees frontman Jean, 40, who faced a challenge to his candidacy in the November 28 elections because he had has not lived in Haiti for the past five years as required, issued a statement urging his supporters to remain calm and respond “peacefully and responsibly to the disappointment”.

“Though I disagree with the ruling, I respectfully accept the committee’s final decision, and I urge my supporters to do the same,” he said.

The electoral commission approved 19 candidates and rejected 15, spokesman Richardson Dumel said. While rejecting Jean, the board approved two leading presidential candidates, former prime minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis and Yvon Neptune, who was the last prime minister under ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and has been active in helping to co-ordinate reconstruction efforts.

Also allowed to run were Jude Celestin, head of the government’s primary construction firm and the candidate supported by current president Rene Preval, and Michel Martelly, a well-known Haitian singer known as ‘Sweet Mickey’.

The electoral commission rejected the candidacy of US ambassador Raymond Joseph, who is Jean’s uncle. Mr Preval is barred running for re-election under the constitution.

Jean had apparently been aware which way the decision would go. The entertainer had been in a hotel near the electoral commission office in the capital Port-au-Prince, but left abruptly without speaking to journalists about an hour before the announcement. He issued his statement later.

Dozens of police and UN peacekeepers in riot gear were stationed outside the electoral council office, but there were no signs of protests or unrest.

The singer had brought a sizzle to the election, attracting fresh attention to a country still devastated by the devastating earthquake.

“His candidacy certainly did shake things up,” said Laurent Dubois, a Haiti historian and professor at Duke University. “But it’s still a very important election whether Wyclef is in it or not.”

The decision had already been delayed once because of uncertainty over candidate qualifications.

Jean, who gained famed as a member of the Fugees before building a solo career, had no political organisation, not much of a following beyond his fans of his music and only a vague platform, casting himself as an advocate of Haiti’s struggling youth and saying he will ask reconstruction donors tohelp the country’s dysfunctional education system.