Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul officially withdrew from the presidency election on Wednesday, putting an end to the parliament's attempts to elect a new head of state.

Gul was prevented in his attempt to replace current President Ahmet Necdet Sezer by a boycott organized by opposition parties, which meant parliament was unable to make quorum on two occasions.

During a second attempt on Sunday to elect a president, 351 members of the parliament were present, 16 shy of two-thirds of the 550 seats in parliament, which, according to Constitutional Court, was needed to reach a quorum.

Sezer's term as president was due to end on May 16 but he will remain president until a new head of state is elected, although parliament had already agreed for an early general election to be held on July 22 in order to end the crisis.

In the first round of parliamentary elections, the parliament cast 357 votes in favor of the Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) candidate, just short of the 267 required votes.

The opposition feared that if Gul became president, the AK Party would have strengthen its power in Turkey, which could have lead to a weakening of the secular system.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of three towns in western Turkey on Saturday to protest against Gul's candidacy. Earlier protests in Istanbul and Ankara had drawn more than a million people.