Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has officially called snap elections in the country following the failure of talks with the opposition on the formation a coalition government.

Erdogan “negotiated with Turkish Grand National Assembly Speaker Ismet Yilmaz and decided on the renewal of parliamentary elections,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement on Monday, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported.

The official announcement was made after the deadline for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to find a coalition partner expired, paving the way for the formation of a caretaker government.

The process entails the stepping down of the council of ministers so Erdogan can appoint a prime minister tasked with forming a caretaker council of ministers.

Not too sad about failure of talks?

For the first time since coming to power in 2002, the AKP fell short of securing sufficient votes during the legislative elections on June 7 to form a single-party government.

The AKP then began negotiations with opposition parties to form a coalition government, but the talks yielded no result.

The Monday statement by the Turkish presidency gave no exact date for the early polls, but reports say Erdogan is likely to set November 1 for the vote. He is also expected to task Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu with forming an interim government.

Observers believe that Erdogan views snap elections as an opportunity for the AKP to win back its majority in Turkey’s 550-seat parliament.

The president of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu has criticized Erdogan for refusing to give the opposition party the mandate to form a government, accusing him of “violating democracy.”

The Turkish president has long pressed for plans to make changes to the country’s constitution in an attempt to grant executive powers to the president. To make the amendments, the AKP needs a two-thirds – or 367-seat – majority in the legislative branch so it could rewrite the constitution.