Thousands of citizens waving Turkish flags clapped and cheered outside Istanbul’s city hall as the new mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, appealed for a new era of peace and unity in Turkey’s largest city.

“Leave behind your quarrels, let's think positive,” Imamoglu pleaded, his voice hoarse from months of campaigning, as he pledged to serve all of Istanbul’s 16 million-plus residents without discrimination. “Greeks, Armenians, Jews, I salute you all,” he said. “This city will be women-friendly.”

Imamoglu delivered a speech suffused with hope and humility after receiving the mandate to become mayor from the Istanbul electoral board more than two weeks after the March 31 municipal elections. The delay, which put the entire nation on edge, was caused by multiple demands by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for recounts. The ruling party claimed that Imamoglu’s pro-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) had perpetrated wide-scale fraud.

The loss of Turkey’s financial powerhouse is a bitter blow to the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who erected his political career on his term as Istanbul’s mayor a quarter of a century ago.