Incumbent President Alassane Ouattara faces seven contenders, two of them former premiers, in Sunday's key vote for the Ivory Coast's top job.
Ouattara is seeking a solid first-round win to seal the peace after years of upheaval in the world's top cocoa producer, but his rivals hope to push the vote into a second round run-off.
- PASCAL AFFI N'GUESSAN
At 62, Affi is seen as the main challenger to the incumbent head of state. He overcame hostility on his own side to run as the candidate for the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) founded by jailed former president Laurent Gbagbo. Some FPI hardliners are boycotting the vote in a show of solidarity with Gbagbo, now awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Elegant Affi readily acknowledges his ties with Gbagbo, whom he served as prime minister from October 2000 to February 2003. He was born in 1953 in the eastern village of Bouadikro, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Abidjan, the coastal economic capital. He is married with seven children.
- CHARLES KONAN BANNY
A former governor of the Central Bank of West African States (as was Ouattara), Charles Konan Banny withdrew from the ruling PDCI coalition to make an individual stand at the polls.
When Gbagbo presided over a divided nation with a rebel-held north, the international community pressured him to make Konan Banny prime minister, a job that lasted for little more than a year (2005-2007).
In 2011, when Ouattara took office after post-election violence crisis claimed 3,000 lives, the politician known for his quick temper was appointed head of a Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Konan Banny is a member of the National Coalition for Change (CNC), which accuses the independent electoral commission of bias and criticises the organisation of Sunday's vote.
Born on November 11, 1942, Banny is married to a woman from the Muslim north. The couple have four children.
- KOUADIO KONAN BERTIN ('KKB')
Renowned for his cheeky humour, Kouadio Konan Bertin led the youth wing of the PDCI for 12 years until 2013. Like Konan Banny, he has opted to go against the party line backing Ouattara.
Elected to parliament for Abidjan's Port-Bouet district, "KKB" argues that PDCI leader Henri Konan-Banny has made a mistake in backing Ouattara. "Not to have a candidate in 2015 is to together sign the death certificate of Felix Houphouet-Boigny's party," he says. Houphouet-Boigny is seen as the founding father of independent Ivory Coast and its Democratic Party (PDCI).
He was born in 1968 in Krikpoko in the central west Lakota region.
- KONAN KOUADIO SIMEON ('KKS')
Born on January 1, 1964, in the central Toumodi region, Konan Kouadio Simeon ("KKS") is a businessman who went into politics because of a "divine call" to become head of state in order to bring peace and reconciliation to the country.
Simeon won a measure of popular esteem when he turned down the sum of 100 million CFA francs (about 152,000 euros/$173,000) the state gave each of the candidates as campaign funds ahead of the vote. He also stood in the last presidential poll in October 2010.
- HENRIETTE ADJOUA LAGOU
Henriette Adjoua Lagou is standing on behalf of the party she founded herself, Renewal for Peace and Concord (RPC).
Born at Daoukro in central Ivory Coast in 1959, the strict and charismatic financial services administrator was previously a member of the PDCI, then the FPI.
- JACQUELINE CLAIRE KOUANGOUA
Jacqueline Claire Kouangoua, a 44-year-old printer, is running as an independent. Born to a father from central Ivory Coast and a mother from the west, she proclaims herself to be the candidate "of bruised hearts and a population weakened and tired by the Ivorian crisis caused by the current political class".
Elegant in traditional flowing dress, Kouangoua launched her campaign in her hometown of Daloa in the central west, where she still lives. She has six children and is grandmother to three little girls.
- GNANGBO KACOU
Gnangbo Kacou, another independent candidate, is an MP for the southern town of Adiake, who wants to create jobs for young people. A shaven-headed tax expert trained in France, Kacou says he would uncouple the CFA franc currency common to a range of African countries from the euro, promote national manufacturing, and make corruption "a crime against humanity".