Ivory Coast holds reconciliation poll at last

* Cocoa producer divided by civil war

* Poll meant to end crisis, pave way for reforms

By Tim Cocks ABIDJAN, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast finally holds a long-delayed presidential election on Sunday that is meant to reunite a nation split in two by war and re-launch West Africa's former star economy.

After six postponements during five years of wrangling between political rivals and former rebels, some 5.7 million people are set to decide who will run the world's top cocoa producer.

Once rows were overcome over who was eligible to vote and how security would be managed, organisers raced against time to distribute voting cards and train over 60,000 poll workers.

"Everything is in place, everyone is in place ... voting will start at 7 a.m. (0700 GMT)," said Yacouba Bamba, spokesman for the Ivorian election commission.

Incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo's main rivals are Henri Konan Bedie, a former president ousted in a 1999 coup, and Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister and IMF official.

The poll is needed to enable reforms to a cocoa sector that supplies more than two-thirds of the market but is in decline.   Continued...