Blaise Lasm and Nestor Dahi, deputy secretaries-general of the African Peoples’ Party (PPA-CI), have been charged with “incitement to insurrection, undermining state security, and disturbing public order.”

The two officials of the political movement led by former Ivorian president and current opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo were indicted and incarcerated on Tuesday, September 30, less than a month before the presidential election, according to their lawyer and the party.

The political climate in Côte d’Ivoire is tense, particularly after the Constitutional Council rejected the candidacies of several opposition leaders, including Laurent Gbagbo, for the October 25 election. The opposition has also denounced incumbent President Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a fourth term, which it deems unconstitutional.

The arrest and indictment of Blaise Lasm and Nestor Dahi, both deputy secretaries-general of the PPA-CI, was confirmed to AFP by their lawyer, Roselyne Serikpa, and by the party’s executive president, Sébastien Djédjé Dano. They are being prosecuted for “incitement to insurrection, undermining state security, disturbing public order, and failure to comply with a decision of the Constitutional Council,” Serikpa specified.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, the party said the two men had been “transferred to the Abidjan penitentiary center.” It added: “The PPA-CI vigorously denounces this new attack on individual freedoms and the right to political expression.”

“For democracy, justice, and peace”

In mid-September, government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly had warned that anyone who contested “the decisions of the Constitutional Council would fall under the full weight of the law.” The Ivorian Constitution sets a maximum of two presidential terms, but the Constitutional Council has ruled that with the adoption of the new Constitution in 2016, the term count was reset.

On Monday, several PPA-CI officials, including Damana Pickass, one of Gbagbo’s close associates, were questioned by the public prosecutor. “He warned us: if any movement were to disturb public order across the territory, he would be obliged to arrest us and place us in detention,” Pickass said after the hearing.

Earlier, in early August, eleven PPA-CI members had been arrested and charged with “acts of terrorism” following incidents in the Abidjan district of Yopougon.

In addition to Laurent Gbagbo, the leader of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) and main opposition figure, Tidjane Thiam, also saw his candidacy rejected. Both parties have called for a march in Abidjan on Saturday, under the slogan “for democracy, justice, and peace.”

Four opposition candidates have been cleared to face President Alassane Ouattara: former trade minister Jean-Louis Billon, a PDCI dissident; two former allies of Gbagbo who have since broken with him—his ex-wife Simone Ehivet Gbagbo and former minister Ahoua Don Mello; and Henriette Lagou, who also ran in 2015.