Cocoa prices slumped to their lowest since May � although contrary to some reports, the fall is believed to have had little to do with the announcement of long overdue elections in Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, said it would on October 31 hold presidential elections that were first scheduled for 2005, but have missed a series of deadlines thanks to political bickering.

The elections are seen as crucial to rebooting the country's cocoa production, which has been static for years, held back by a reluctance to invest in renewing plantations because of the political unease, which spilled over into civil war in 2002-03.

Laurent Gbago, the current president, pledged to near-double cocoa production in five years should he be re-elected.

"It will be necessary for us to transform production over the next 10 years," he added.

'Some scepticism' 

Cocoa for September delivery fell by 3.3% to $3,010 a tonne in New York on Friday, and by 4.9% to �2,197 a tonne in London, the weakest since mid-May.

However, that had more to do with "the course of regular trading" than the announcement of the elections, BarCap analyst Sudakshina Unnikrishnan said.

"There is some scepticism around about when the election will take place," she told Agrimoney.com, adding that the New York levels above $3,100 a tonne reached in the last session had often encouraged selling.

There were also some doubts that, given the ageing profile of Ivory Coast's cocoa plantations, the country could double output within five years, even with presidential will behind it.

Bearish report?

At Sucden Financial, Stephanie Garner said: "They have been talking about elections since at least 2005.

"Until the elections are really happening, they are not happening."

The prices declines appeared more down to fund selling which had triggered automatic sell orders she said, adding that there were rumours that a bearish report on the commodity had been issued by Hans Kilian, the influential cocoa analyst.

'Uneasy status quo'

Ivory Coast production is expected to recover to about 1.3m tonnes in 2010-11 from a little under 1.2m tonnes the year before, representing a little over one-third of global output, analysts at ABN Amro said last week.

The bank placed a "unified national government that is transparently honest" as a pre-requisite to a recovery in the Ivory Coast cocoa industry.

Writing before the election announcement, ABN said: "The leading players in the country's murky political hierarchy have shown little readiness to move ahead on the election, each preferring to maintain the uneasy status quo until they feel convinced that their particular party or faction is likely to emerge the overall victor."