The rhetoric is getting increasingly personal, supporters’ groups have clashed and the army is on high alert. With just a few days before the second-round of the presidential election, Ivory Coast teeters on the brink of violence.

With just a few days to go before the second round of the hotly contested presidential election, security chiefs in Ivory Coast are not pulling their punches.

“To those plotting in the shadows against peace, I tell you this – the armed forces of Ivory Coast will be merciless,” the chief of staff of the country’s army General Philippe Mangou said on Monday. The candidates for Sunday’s vote, which is supposed to end a decade of political and military crisis, are polar opposites.

Socialist incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, heading a coalition of parties under the banner the “The Presidential Majority” (MLP), won 38.3% of the vote in the first round of the election. He is pitted against liberal former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara (who won 32.08%) at the head of the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP).

The army’s call for order highlights a tension that has been increasing since campaigning began for the second round of the election last week.