When a consul died prior to the holding of the elections and the designation of a new consul for the next year he was replaced by a suffectus, who would finish off the year. A suffect consul was supposed to be elected in a special session of the comitia centuriata, called by the surviving consul. In a few cases the deaths of both consuls or the inability for various reasons to conduct the consular elections in time to designate new consuls before the old ones' imperium lapsed required the election of an interrex. The interreges, as their name implies, were traditionally the individuals which presided over the curial elections of the kings, and they were a religious necessity. It was the duty of the consuls (and sometimes of dictators) to call the comitia for a consular election, but just as importantly the consuls were invested with the auspices, traditionally a power passed on to them by the kings. The auspices couldn't just be granted, they had to be assumed in direct continuity without lapses. When the consuls were unable to take the auspices they therefore reverted to the senate, who would establish a five-day interregnum. The interrex, in whom the auspices was entrusted, was elected internally by the senate (one of the only offices they could legally appoint without a vote of the people). He had to be a patrician, and the plebeian senators did not vote on the appointment of the interrex. Interreges were succeeded by a new interrex after their five days if the consular elections still had not been held, and sometimes interregna could become quite long--in 327, according to Livy, the interregnum that eventually elected C. Poetelius and Papirius Cursor lasted fourteen interreges!