If everything goes as planned, the Free Student Union elections that have been stalled for years will be held in March, 2023.

The Tribhuvan University, which has a share of some 85 percent university students in the country, is preparing for the polls that elect the student’s representatives for two years. The biennial elections haven’t been held since 2017. In the elections five years back, voting couldn’t take place in more than 35 constituent campuses and some 100 community colleges following differences among student unions and incidents of violence.

It was only in 2009 that the elections were held across the country. The officials at the university say they are making final preparations to announce the election schedule. “Based on the suggestions of student unions, deans and the examination controller’s office, we have reached a conclusion that the elections should be held on March 12,” Pashupati Adhikari, chief at the Directorate of Student Welfare and Sports, told the Post.

The Student Welfare Council will recommend the date to the university’s executive committee which will formally announce the schedule. Starting in 2017, the varsity has adopted a mixed electoral system that would allow equal division of seats between those elected through the proportional and first-past-the-post systems. Only those students below 28 years can take part in voting.

In addition to 61 constituent colleges, the university administration wants to conduct the elections in its 1,040 affiliated colleges—both the community and private. “The university will direct its constituent colleges to elect students’ representatives through polls,” said Adhikari.

Though the affiliated community colleges, in addition to the constituent campuses, have been holding the elections, the private ones haven’t held such elections. Private college operators say they will discuss the issue among themselves and make their position on the matter public once the university takes a decision to this effect.

“We are not aware of the move of Tribhuvan University. Private colleges will formulate their position once the university takes its formal decision,” said Lok Bahadur Bhandari, general secretary of the Higher Institutions and Secondary Schools’ Association Nepal (HISSAN), a national level umbrella association of privately funded higher schools and colleges.

University officials say there is a practice in several countries to have student councils in colleges and universities. Therefore, there is nothing wrong in holding the elections in private colleges as well. Bhandari, however, says private colleges in Nepal don’t have the practice of electing student councils and they are yet to evaluate the pros and cons.

In their meetings, student unions have told the university administration that they are eagerly waiting for the polls long overdue.

Dujang Sherpa, president of the Nepal Student Union affiliated to the Nepali Congress, said they are ready to participate in the vote whenever the university wants. “We now want the university to call all the student unions and make a formal decision with their signatures,” he told the Post. “Also the polls should be held after publishing the pending examination results.”