ISTANBUL, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's top electoral board on Wednesday appointed Ekrem Imamoglu, candidate for the main opposition party, as the new mayor of Istanbul, the country's biggest city, local media reported.
Imamoglu, mayoral candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP), received his mandate from the Supreme Election Council (YSK) officials at the Caglayan Courthouse in Istanbul, state-run Anadolu news agency said.
After the recount of the invalid votes in all districts of the city and full recounts in some locations which were conducted upon the objections of the ruling party, Imamoglu won the race against Binali Yildirim, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate and a former prime minister, by a margin of 13,729 votes.
Press reports said there would be a handover ceremony later in the day at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
On Tuesday, 16 days after the election, the AKP requested the cancellation and the renewal of the election in Istanbul over the so-called irregularities and mistakes detected during the voting process.
The AKP also asked the YSK not to give the mandate to Imamoglu until a decision on their appeal was given, which was later declined by the board.
The electoral board will start to assess AKP's petition after granting the mandate to Imamoglu and it is expected to last a couple of days, according to the CHP officials.
