20100925
reuters

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. mission to Ivory Coast certified its final voter list as "fair and transparent" on Friday, adding momentum to plans to hold elections at last after years of failure.

Voting is scheduled for October 31, but six dates have already been missed in the past five years because of arguing over voters' identities and the disarmament of rebel groups.

Elections are needed to draw a line under Ivory Coast's civil war of 2002 and 2003 which caused investors to flee what had been West Africa's economic success story.

Voting could make way for reforms necessary to fix the cocoa sector in the world's top producer, which supplies two-thirds of world demand but has been hurt by under-investment.

"The challenges lying ahead are not to be underestimated, yet I remain confident that together, we shall meet them with success. The Ivorian people, who had suffered and waited for so long, deserve nothing less," U.N. mission chief Y. J. Choi told a news conference.

All parties to the conflict agreed this month on a final voter list, removing what appeared to be the last serious political hurdle in the way of polls after rebels who have run half the country since the war withdrew to barracks at the end of August.

"SOLID, BALANCED, CREDIBLE"

President Laurent Gbagbo's signature on a decree this month validating definitive voter lists was hailed as a huge step considering he scuppered earlier versions because he suspected they included names from Burkina Faso and Mali.