Ivory Coast’s top court ratifies results of presidential election, declares Alassane Ouattara won

Ivory Coast's Constitutional Council ratified Thursday the results of a presidential election showing that Alassane Ouattara won, reversing an earlier decision to reject them.

The court's initial rejection of electoral commission results from the November 2010 poll sparked a four-month power struggle between Ouattara and incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo that killed thousands and displaced more than a million.

Constitutional Council President Paul Yao N'Dre said the top legal body now accepted that Ouattara won the election.

The electoral commission had awarded victory to Ouattara with a 54 percent majority. His struggle to secure power turned increasingly violent until Gbagbo was finally arrested in an underground bunker stormed by pro-Ouattara forces on April 11.