Two former presidential candidates are asking the Navajo Supreme Court to hold election officials in contempt for failing to comply with a court order regarding next week’s election.

Dale Tsosie and Hank Whitethorne are claiming the Navajo Board of Election Supervisors and the Navajo Election Administration “blatantly defied” Supreme Court orders to postpone the November 4 presidential election and remove from the ballot Chris Deschene, who was disqualified from the race over language fluency questions.

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As of Monday when the motion was filed, the election administration and the nine-member election board had not complied with the court order.

Tsosie and Whitethorne, who came in 10th and 15th, respectively, during the August 26 primary election, requested the Supreme Court to schedule a hearing at which police officers will be present. The motion also requests all members of the election board and the election office’s executive director to attend the hearing to explain why the order was not followed.

If they are not present for the hearing, the motion requests a bench warrant to be issued. Officials attending the hearing should be immediately detained for contempt of court until the orders are “fully and verifiably complied with,” the motion states.

“There shall be no release from detention of the respondents until such time the orders of this court are fully and verifiably complied with,” the motion states. It also asks that the court immediately strip board members of their elected positions and deem them disqualified and ineligible for current or future tribal elected offices.

The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for the motion for Friday, October 31, but it is not requiring all election officials to be present. Instead, respondents are instructed to submit a single response, no more than 10 pages long. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. in the Chinle, Arizona, District Court.

Election officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The motion is the latest action in a dispute brought against Deschene when previous candidates alleged that he lied on his candidacy application when he said he speaks fluent Navajo, a requirement for the tribe’s highest elected position. The case twice went to the Supreme Court, which on October 23 upheld a lower court’s ruling to disqualify Deschene. The ruling also called for election officials to reprint ballots without Deschene’s name.

With only days to spare before the scheduled election, the election board must act quickly. Even if it officially postpones the election and agrees to reprint ballots, however, it still must answer to the Supreme Court on Friday.

Despite continuing uncertainty about the presidential election, polls will be open across the Navajo Nation next week for voters to elect a variety of local, state and national leaders, including the 24 seats on the Navajo Nation Council.