The interim government formed in the immediate aftermath of a youths-led movement on Sept 8-9 has an uphill task ahead: conducting elections within six months (of which one month has already elapsed), which is easier said than done. 

The state organs have suffered burns of varying degrees in the ensuing violence. Many police posts, tasked with maintaining law and order, have turned to ashes. For many police personnel, according to reports, even uniform has become a luxury, leave alone other amenities. At this point in time, the morale of the police force may not be exactly high as it has just survived a serious crisis, with burns and scars of various degrees and depths. 

What’s more, out of over 14, 000 inmates, who escaped from 28 prisons and juvenile detention centers across Nepal during the protests, nearly 5,700 individuals, including hardened criminals, are still on the run—with looted weapons—while 8,851 escapees, including 341 juvenile detainees, have voluntarily surrendered.  

Concerningly, the government does not seem as serious as it should be when it comes to conducting an operation for the search, arrest and disarming of the absconders. Is the government waiting for some auspicious date to conduct such an operation?  

Still, the government appears serious about conducting the elections within the stipulated timeframe (5 March 2026) and handing over the reins to an elected government. It has directed the Election Commission to make preparations for the polls and called Nepali missions abroad to garner support of host governments and organizations for the cause.     

Sounds great, but polls cannot take place in a vacuum. The democratic exercise is impossible without taking a shaken and stirred people into confidence, for which a semblance of order is necessary. In every democracy worth its name, polls are impossible without the participation of political parties. 

But the government seems to have forgotten—or undermined, deliberately or otherwise—to take the parties into confidence.  

Apart from issuing instructions to the EC and making logistical arrangements for the vote, the government should also reach out to the parties. 

On their part, the parties should not forget that only a popular vote can take the country out of this long and dark tunnel of anarchy. 

It’s time the government rallied the whole nation for polls by taking the parties and other stakeholders into confidence. Government instructions and directives sound great, but action should speak louder.