Following are the main actors in Ivory Coast’s prolonged political crisis:
President Laurent Gbagbo
In power since 2000, Gbagbo’s mandate ran out in 2005 but a presidential election has been delayed ever since.
Gbagbo, 65, denies creating obstacles and blames the opposition for delays to the electoral process.
Originally associated with the left, he has emerged as an arch nationalist and his supporters are accused of xenophobic rhetoric towards mostly Muslim migrants from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, sentiments which largely sparked the 2002-3 civil war.
He put Ivory Coast on a collision course with its former colonial master in 2004, when the Ivorian military killed nine French peacekeepers in a bombing and France retaliated by destroying the Ivorian air force. His supporters attacked French expatriates, forcing 8 000 to be evacuated.
Analysts say his attempts to boost his popularity in rebel northern and western zones have had mixed results.
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro
Soro, 38, was named leader of rebel group the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI), after it launched an insurgency against Gbagbo in September 2002. It later joined another rebel group to form the New Forces.
Soro and Gbagbo signed a peace deal in 2007 and Gbagbo appointed Soro prime minister. He has since cast himself as an overseer of the peace process, mediating disputes.
Aides say he keeps his cards close to his chest and never comments on the widely held assumption that he plans to run for the presidency when he is over the minimum age of 40, though his quitting as rebel party chief last month was seen as paving the way for eventually standing.
Henri Konan Bedie
President from 1995 until he was deposed in a coup in 1999, he is the oldest of the three main presidential candidates. His opposition Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI) accuses Gbagbo of dragging his feet on the elections.
Bedie, 76, is seen as the successor to long-time president Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who died in 1993 after presiding over decades of agricultural export-led economic growth.
He is widely blamed for promoting the nationalistic idea of “Ivorite”, designed to exclude recent migrants. Resentment at the notion fuelled the 2002 rebellion.
Alassane Ouattara
A former prime minister under Boigny who gained a reputation for good economic management, Ouattara later joined the IMF, rising to deputy head.
He is from the mainly Muslim north of Ivory Coast and was excluded from running for alleged Burkinabe origins in the 2000 poll after coup leader Robert Guei tightened the rules to bar anyone whose parents are not both Ivorian.
In the past, Gbagbo has not shied away from insinuating that Ouattara is Burkinabe and has no right to run. Because of ties with France, he has been painted as a French stooge.
The rebels have backed his cause, though he has always denied having any part in the rebellion himself.
Source: Reuters