ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A constitutional court in the Ivory Coast said Friday it was overturning poll results that showed opposition leader Alassane Ouattara won a Sunday runoff.
The country's Independent Election Commission had declared Ouattara the winner Sunday before the courts stepped in, claiming delays in the announcement left the matter in judicial hands.
Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said before the court's announcement Friday that Washington felt the Ouattara victory should stand.
"Those provisional results have declared Alassane Ouattara the winner over incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo," he said in a statement. "Credible, accredited electoral observers have characterized the balloting as free and fair, and no party should be allowed to obstruct further the electoral process."
Presidential supporters had complained of fraud in the rebel-held north of the country and the court decided to throw out some of the ballots from the pro-Ouattara north.
A constitutional committee said Friday that Gbagbo had won with 51 percent of the vote, the BBC reports.
The country was split into the pro-government south and the rebel-held north following a civil war in 2002. The vote was meant to reunite the country.
U.N. officials had issued repeated pleas for transparency and asked for calm. Election violence claimed at least six lives in the Ivory Coast.
