Supporters of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, who lives in Belgium after being tried by the International Criminal Court, and exiled former rebel leader Guillaume Soro on Monday filed their candidacies for a tense presidential election in October.
Both had been barred by the electoral commission from running due to convictions in the country's courts and it is unlikely that the Constitutional Court will clear their candidacies.
President Alassane Ouattara, 75, and former president Henri Konan Bedie, 86, submitted their dossiers last week.
The October 31 election in the world's top cocoa grower comes after years of political turbulence and civil war, and Gbagbo's return to national politics is highly sensitive.
The country remains scarred by a conflict that erupted after the 2010 vote when Gbagbo refused to hand over power to the victor, current President Alassane Ouattara. Around 3,000 people lost their lives in several months of violence.
Gbagbo, who was freed conditionally by the ICC after he was cleared in 2019 of crimes against humanity, has not made any public statement about whether he wishes to run again.
He is living in Brussels pending the outcome of an appeal against the ICC ruling. In the meantime, he can travel, provided the country of destination accepts him.
"We have just submitted the candidacy file of our political leader, president Laurent Gbagbo, the father of democracy in Ivory Coast," said Georges-Armand Ouegnin, president of the pro-Gbagbo coalition called Together for Democracy and Sovereignty (EDS).
- Struck from electoral lists -
Independent Electoral Commission chief Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert has said that anyone convicted of a crime cannot contest.
Gbagbo, 75, was sentenced in absentia to a 20-year term last November over the looting of the local branch of the Central Bank of West African States during the post-election crisis.
He could be jailed if he were to set foot in Ivory Coast.
Ouegnin said the decision to block Gbagbo from running was political, while judicial sources said they believe his candidacy is unlikely to be validated.
Ouegnin called for the release of all political prisoners and the return of political exiles, including Gbagbo.
Relatives and supporters of Soro, a rebel leader who became prime minister, echoed those sentiments and called for his candidacy to be validated.
Soro's spokeswoman Aminata Kone-Zie accused the government of subterfuge "to make our president (Soro) ineligible under an alleged criminal conviction."
- Midnight deadline -
Soro, 48, has been forced into exile in France in the face of a long list of legal problems at home.
He was sentenced in April to 20 years in prison for "concealment of embezzlement of public funds".
Soro was a leader in a 2002 revolt against Gbagbo that sliced the former French colony into the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south and triggered years of unrest.
He was once an ally of Ouattara, helping him to power during the post-election crisis in 2010, but the two fell out.
Candidates have until midnight Monday to submit their dossiers with the electoral commission, which said it expects to receive a total of 40 submissions.
The Constitutional Council then has 15 days to release the list of approved candidates. Sources close to the commission have said that fewer than 10 are likely to be validated.
Violence erupted after Ouattara's announcement he is seeking a third term, claiming the lives of at least eight people in August.
The constitution limits presidents to two terms, but Ouattara and his supporters argue that a 2016 constitutional tweak reset the clock.