– Tue Mar 15, 8:38 am ET

PRETORIA (AFP) – South Africa cannot prevent Haiti’s exiled ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from returning home before this weekend’s presidential run-off on the island, an official said Tuesday.

“It is not our responsibility to say if Jean-Bertrand Aristide should or should not leave South Africa before the election,” deputy foreign minister Marius Fransman said.

The United States on Monday urged South Africa to encourage Aristide to stay put, fearing that his return would cause political turmoil as the country prepares for Sunday’s vote.

“The US needs to engage the Haitian government. If his (Aristide’s) passport has been issued, we cannot decide when he should leave South Africa,” Fransman told reporters.

Haiti cleared the way for Aristide’s return by issuing him with a new passport in February.

“It is essential that the Haitian government should be leading the process and we will facilitate whatever decision they take,” he added.

An Aristide aide in Haiti said last week the return of the ousted leader, who has been living in South Africa since 2004, was “imminent”.

Aristide and his wife Mildred work at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, where he received a PhD in African languages in 2007.

Aristide served three presidential terms and was ousted from office twice, eventually fleeing a 2004 popular uprising aboard a US plane.

He remains a popular figure in certain quarters in Haiti, especially in the capital’s teeming slums, and in the tent cities that have sprung up since the January 2010 earthquake where many decry the slow pace of progress.