In a proposal to the 11th plenum of the 9th Central Committee, Võ Văn Kiệt suggested democratizing the political system by giving the delegates to a party congress the power to elect the general secretary, the Central Committee and the Central Commission for Inspection, and giving congress delegates ultimate power on all matters put before them at the congress. He called for the reduction of the Central Committee from one-fourth to one-third, holding the elections of state leaders at the National Assembly in the immediate aftermath of a congress (and not a year later), secret ballots for elections, empowering delegates to self-nominate to the Central Committee and merging the offices of President and General Secretary into one. These suggestions, with the exception of holding the National Assembly elections earlier, were rejected at the 11th plenum of the 9th Central Committee in January 2005.