Aristide, 57, who lived in South Africa after his 2004 ouster that he says Washington helped engineer, was flying home to Port-au-Prince in a charter plane with his family and was expected to arrive by noon (1 p.m. EDT) on Friday.
He has insisted on returning home just before Sunday's decisive presidential contest, which the United States and Western donors want to see produce a stable leadership to steer Haiti's arduous recovery from a destructive 2010 earthquake.
U.S. officials say the presence of the charismatic, leftist former Catholic priest, who still has a passionate following in his poor Caribbean homeland, could be "destabilizing" for the election, which is being protected by U.N. peacekeepers.
U.S. President Barack Obama called his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, to stress the importance of Aristide not returning before the poll. South Africa said it could not stop Aristide from going back to his country.
Via Haiti's Aristide heads home before runoff vote | Reuters
