Conclave is Italian for With Key

Conclave is Italian for With Key

(Latin cum, with, and clavis, key; a place that may be securely closed)

The closed room or hall specially set aside and prepared for the cardinals when electing a pope.
In 1271 the election that ended with the choice of Gregory X at Viterbo had lasted over two years and nine months when the local authorities, weary of the delay, shut up the cardinals within narrow limits and thus hastened the desired election.
There was to be a window through which food could be admitted. If after three days the cardinals did not arrive at a decision, they were to receive for the next five days only one dish at their noon and evening meals. If these five days elapsed without an election, only bread, wine, and water should be their fare.
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The Papal conclave of 2013 is to be convened as a result of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
On 11 February 2013, Benedict XVI announced his intention to resign the papacy effective 28 February. Benedict XVI will be the first pope to resign in almost six centuries; the most recent pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415.

Papal election process for 2013
On 16 February 2013, the Holy See spokesman Father Federico Lombardi stated that if the cardinals will be in Rome before the expected date, the conclave may be held before 15 March.

The cardinal electors
Papal Conclave of 2013
Electors 117 total
Africa 9
Asia & Middle East 10
Europe 71
Oceania 1
Americas 26
Outgoing pope Benedict XVI

New pope To be determined
Although there were 209 cardinals in all, cardinals aged 80 years or older before the day the papacy fell vacant were ineligible to vote in the conclave according to rules originally enacted by Pope Paul VI in 1970 and subsequently modified in 1996 by Pope John Paul II.

Candidates
The cardinals may elect any baptised Catholic male, but since 1389, cardinals have always elected a fellow cardinal. Christoph Schönborn of Austria, Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, Peter Turkson of Ghana, Marc Ouellet of Canada and Angelo Scola are among those cardinals who are thought to be the most likely successors by media commentators. Francis Arinze of Nigeria and Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong have also been named as possible choices by the media but, as they are over 80, they cannot take part in the conclave. Other papabile Cardinals include Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, and Timothy M. Dolan of the United States.

Timing
The conclave to elect the new pope is expected to start sometime between 15 and 20 March 2013.

Despite this expectation, the law provides differently. The timing for the papal Conclave is governed by the Apostolic Constitution Universi domenici gregis, particularly paragraph 37, and the Code of Canon Law. The Apostolic Constitution requires, “Cardinales electores praesentes exspectent absentes quindecim solidos dies”, or “the Cardinal electors present must wait for those absent for 15 complete [solidus] days”. To reckon the passage of time, one must reference the Code of Canon Law, particularly canons 200-203. Under the law, reckoning of days begins on the first full day after an event. In this case, one begins reckoning the 15-day waiting period not from the day of resignation, but on the day after, i.e., on March 1. The period of complete [solidus] days would end on March 15, 2013. That is the proper calculation for the period of waiting. Therefore, a papal conclave may not begin until the day after this period has ended. That is, the earliest the Papal Conclave could begin is 12:01am on Saturday, March 16. The same reasoning applies to the latest possible date. This means that the Papal Conclave must begin sometime between March 16 and 21, 2013.
This is the same reckoning of time that was used in the 2005 Papal Conclave. That is, Pope John Paul II died on April 2. The period of reckoning for the waiting period began on April 3, and the fifteenth day occurred on April 17. Therefore, the Papal Conclave could only begin (and did begin) on April 18, 2005.