( CNN ) -- A lawyer for former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide scoffed Monday at a U.S. government warning that his client 's planned return to Haiti from South Africa could disrupt elections scheduled for Sunday . `` The U.S. government has done everything they can to keep him halfway around the world , '' said Ira Kurzban , Aristide 's longtime , Miami-based lawyer . `` For them to issue this ridiculous statement that it was voluntary and that he voluntarily stayed in South Africa is pure fiction . He 's been trying to come back for seven years . '' Kurzban was referring to a comment made by State Department spokesman Mark Toner , who said Monday , `` Mr. Aristide has chosen to remain outside of Haiti for seven years . To return this week can only be seen as a conscious choice to impact Haiti 's elections . ... Return prior to the election may potentially be destabilizing to the political process . '' Kurzban said Aristide , Haiti 's first democratically elected president , is planning to return before Sunday 's elections , though he said he did not know when . Aristide has long said that he was removed from Haiti in 2004 aboard a CIA plane in a coup carried out by the U.S. government . U.S. authorities have said they were seeking to prevent him from being violently overthrown by domestic unrest . Since then , Aristide has been trying to return to Haiti to work in education , Kurzban said . He particularly wants to return prior to the election so that any new government will not have the opportunity to keep him out , something he said the U.S. government would support . `` The U.S. government is very involved in keeping Aristide out and trying to shepherd in a right-wing government , '' the lawyer said . Since 2004 , Aristide has been teaching in South Africa and trying to arrange for his return to Haiti , his lawyer said . In February , he received a new Haitian passport . But the lawyer conceded that Aristide 's return would draw attention away from the current list of presidential candidates . `` It 's clear that the candidates now running for office have very low popularity among the Haitian people and the U.S. does n't want a figure as popular as Aristide coming back , '' Kurzban said . `` He 's a populist and represents the aspirations of the Haitian people and ( U.S. government officials ) are , I think , afraid that those aspirations may not be consistent with the interests of supporting the elite in Haiti . '' Toner said that the Haitian constitution gives Aristide the right to return and that the decision to allow that is in the hands of the Haitian government . `` We would urge former President Aristide to delay his return until after the electoral process has concluded to permit the Haitian people to cast their ballots in a peaceful atmosphere , '' Toner told reporters at a State Department briefing unrelated to Haiti . And the State Department spokesman asked South Africa , where Aristide and his family have lived since he left Haiti voluntarily in 2004 , to also make the case against his return . `` We encourage the South African government as a committed partner to Haiti 's stability to urge former president Aristide to delay his return until after the elections , '' Toner said . CNN 's Tom Watkins and Charley Keyes contributed to this story .
NEW : ` ` The U.S. has worked ` ` to keep him halfway around the world , '' Washington 's lawyer says . The exiled former president has declared his intent to retire . A presidential election is set for November . Aristide 's return will destabilize the process , the State Department says .