Wyclef Jean Shot, Hospitalized in Haiti

By Christine Fenno  Posted Mar 20th 2011 09:41AM

The night before presidential elections in Haiti, Fugees co-founder Wyclef Jean, 41, was treated and released from a hospital for a gunshot wound to the hand, according to his spokesperson. Jean was running for president last year, amid controversy, until Haiti's board of elections disqualified him.

Jean's brother, Samuel, confirmed the shooting. Joe Mignon, an officer with Jean's Yele Foundation, told the Associated Press that Jean was wounded late Saturday night in Delmas, a city east of Port-au-Prince.

According to WENN news, the recording artist was with rapper Busta Rhymes and music exec Jimmy Rosemund when the car they were in was "peppered with bullets."

Cindy Tanenbaum, Jean's publicist, told CNN, "He's doing well."

Jean has been in his homeland campaigning for popular musician Michel Martelly as he runs for the nation's highest office (Martelly's opponent is a former first lady, Mirlande Manigat). Ballots are cast today, with results made public by April 16.

The political process in Haiti has been particularly chaotic since the 7.0 earthquake of January 2010. The Red Cross estimated that three million Haitians were affected by the disaster.

Back in 2008, Wyclef recorded a song called 'If I Was President,' which includes lyrics that cast him as a target of political violence: "If I was president / I'd get elected on Friday / Assassinated on Saturday / And buried on Sunday."