Legislative terms should be long enough to provide some continuity and consistency in government and policy, long enough to allow new representatives to learn the ropes of legislating, and long enough to avoid 'voter fatigue' where citizens give up on going to the polls because they feel that they made their political choice too recently. However, the term of office of a parliament needs to be short enough to maintain an accountable link between the voter, representative, and government. In democracies the average length of office for lower houses of bicameral parliaments is two to five years, while for upper chambers it is four to nine years.
Elections can be staggered between presidential and parliamentary elections and even within sections of the legislature. For example, one third of the US House of Representatives are returned every two years. Lastly, parliaments can either have fixed terms (US) or maximum terms (UK) which allow the government of the day to choose exactly when the elections are held. One advantage of fixed terms is that the sitting government finds it more difficult to manipulate the political stage towards a certain election date picked by them, but fixed terms of office can also mean that the campaigning period becomes tediously long and turns off the majority of voters.
Voter participation in elections can be dramatically influenced by the day (or days) on which elections are held. If high participation is deemed to be a normative good then holding the elections on a day which facilitates the 'ease of voting' makes sense. Thus elections can be held on the weekend or on a public holiday (perhaps one specially called for the election). If the election is held on a public holiday there is more justification for making voter turnout compulsory, see Compulsory Voting. Voter turnout may well be higher in a season of better weather. This is especially true in developing world countries where basic transportation is more of an issue. Therefore, elections are likely to have higher turnout when they are not held in the rainy season of a tropical country, or in the deep of mid winter in a cold climate nation.
