Differences among the student unions over the age limit for candidates for Free Student Union election have pushed back the poll as the Tribhuvan University is unwilling to set the date without consensus among the unions.

Amending its regulations two years ago, the country’s oldest varsity had made it mandatory for a student to be below 28 years to run for an FSU post. Several attempts of the TU administration to forge consensus have failed to bear fruit as the unions are adamant on their stance.

While the Nepali Congress-affiliated Nepal Student Union (NSU) is against the age limit, CPN-UML student wing All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU) and the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) are for the age bar. The NSU has been demanding that the TU amend the provisions to allow all students in the race irrespective of their age.

“Our plan to hold the election by May has failed. We cannot announce the date unless all the unions arrive at consensus,” said Sudha Tripathi, the TU rector. Since there has been no election for the last seven years, the NSU said, all the students should be allowed to compete for one time. But other unions argue that one above 30 cannot be a student leader. The biennial election of the FSU has not taken place since 2009, owing to the differences over the electoral procedure among the student unions.

TU colleges have been without student representatives after the Supreme Court two years ago directed the university not to extend the tenure of the FSU but to hold the election immediately.

Responding to the petition filed by Bimal Prasad Pokhrel, president of the ANNFSU (Sixth), a division bench of Justices Kalyan Shrestha and Devendra Gopal Shrestha made the ruling, scrapping the bodies elected five years ago. While the ANNISU-R advocates proportional representation, the NSU is for the first-past-the-post system.