ON the eve of the completion of the tenure of the first democratically-elected government, I have the following suggestions to further strengthen the democratic process.

We must declare exactly the month of the general elections, such as May. The date on which the prime minister will take the oath of office, such as June 1, the date of the interim government’s oath-taking ceremony, such as March 20, and the party election month, such as December, prior to the election year.

And we should reduce the government’s tenure from five to four years and hold general elections in the odd-year such as 2013, then 2017 and so on.

Thus it can become a norm that every government’s tenure will end in March and general elections will be held in May and the next government will take the oath on exactly June 1 and all political parties will conduct intra-party elections in December just before the election year.

I hope if we adopt these norms, our dream of a democratic governmental system will come true.

IKRAM ABBASI Rawalpindi