PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A US businessman seeking to run for president of his native Haiti said he ignored Monday's deadline to prove his citizenship to a new commission established by the country's interim government.

Dumarsais Simeus, who rose from poverty in Haiti to become owner of a large food services company in Texas, said he was not among the dozens of candidates to submit paperwork to the commission - which the government said was a requirement to stay in the race.

Haitian electoral officials had said the businessman could not run for president because the constitution bars candidates who have dual nationality and have not lived in the country for the previous five years.

The Supreme Court then ruled that electoral officials had failed to prove that Simeus had given up his Haitian citizenship - prompting the interim government to create the new commission.

Simeus said he does not consider the commission legitimate.
"They have no right to ask me for anything," he told The Associated Press. "The Supreme Court has ruled I could run, and I will be running, period."

The elections, tentatively scheduled for mid-December, will replace the interim government imposed after a rebellion forced the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.

Michel Brunache, a member of the newly formed commission, declined to specify who had submitted paperwork to the nationality commission.

"Any candidate who has not filed his forms with us has now de facto quit the race," said Brunache, who is also the presidential chief of staff.

Some three dozen candidates are on the presidential ballot for elections, which have been postponed twice.

Haiti's electoral commission, which has been struggling to register voters and organise the balloting, held a lottery Monday to decide where each candidate will appear on the ballot. Rene Preval, a former president and one-time ally of Aristide, drew the number one spot - a key position in largely illiterate Haiti. Simeus received number 36.

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