Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet DavutogluReuters

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu resigned on Tuesday, in a procedural move after his AK Party lost its majority in parliamentary elections earlier this week.

According to the BBC, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accepted Davutoglu's gesture but asked him to stay in the post until a new government was formed.

Erdogan is expected to give Davutoglu the difficult task of forming a new coalition government, the report added.

The two men met on Tuesday in the capital, Ankara, to discuss the future of the government after the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party lost its majority in parliament for the first time in 13 years.

It secured 41%, a sharp drop from 2011, and is now likely to try to form a coalition, although no party has yet indicated it is willing to join forces with the AKP.

In accepting Davutoglu's resignation, Erdogan expressed his thanks for his services and asked him to continue to serve until a new government was established, according to a statement posted on the president's website.

The BBC noted that the move is a political formality, and Davutoglu's future remains unclear.

Erdogan had been seeking a two-thirds majority to turn Turkey into a presidential republic, but his Islamist-rooted AK Party fell short and the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) upset his ambitions by crossing the 10% threshold, securing seats in parliament for the first time.

Erdogan wanted to change the constitution to grant him greater powers than he currently wields but the entry of HDP into parliament will likely make that impossible.

On Sunday night, two days before he resigned, Davutoglu put on a brave face and hailed the election results as a "victory" for AKP. Erdogan himself waited more than 24 hours after the results were announced before issuing a statement on the election.