Although the constitutional and legal regulations on the choosing of the date of an election vary strongly from state to state, it seems nevertheless to be possible to derive a few guidelines from the survey that is presented in this report. Taking into account the importance of elections, the constitutional law tries to guarantee the democratic character of the decision-making on the date of the election. This is especially appropriate as the Constitution often does not exhaustively determine the date of the elections but confers to a certain authority the power to decide on pre-term elections and on the precise date to hold the elections. The democratic character of the decision-making depends largely on the legitimate character of this authority. To be legitimised to dissolve a democratically elected Parliament and to choose the date of the elections, the authority itself must be democratically legitimised, either by being directly elected or by having the confidence of parliament, or by taking the decision to dissolve with the approval of parliament. Over and above this minimal safeguard, states can deem it useful to further regulate in the Constitution the substantial conditions that have to be fulfilled before a decision can be taken to dissolve parliament and to hold new elections. In order to be legitimised the dissolution may not be arbitrary, but has to serve the proper functioning of the democratic institutions. As it is of the utmost importance that the political parties have enough time to prepare the elections and that the new Parliament is elected without undue delay, it can be useful to determine a minimum and a maximum period between the decision on the date of the elections and the elections themselves. It therefore seems to be good practice that the written or unwritten constitutional law contains these safeguards to avoid abuses.