The KP Sharma Oli-led government has sought to make a case to hold all three-level of elections under its own leadership in accordance with the provision of the new constitution.

In a political report presented in the ruling UML’s  ongoing Politburo meeting, Prime Minister and UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has put a strong emphasis on holding elections-local, provincial and parliamentary—by January 2018.

As per the constitutional provision, election for the Federal Parliament should be held by January 2018, and the government needs to hold local and provincial elections before that. “The government will expedite preparations for all three-level elections,” PM Oli has stated in a 12-page report presented in the party meeting.

PM Oli has argued that timely elections are a must for the implementation of the constitution and ending political void in the local level. Stating that the government has already started preparations for holding local body elections, Oli instructed the party leadership to focus on starting preparations for local polls.

As part of its preparations, the government had last week decided to forward a draft law to amend the Local Bodies (Election Procedure) Act. It has also begun the process to endorse the legislation, a move that will clear the way for holding the long overdue local polls.

Local bodies are running without elected people’s representatives for the last 13 years.

Given tight election cycles before January 2018, the EC had forwarded a draft law to amend the Local Bodies (Election Procedure) Act right after the promulgation of the new constitution some five months ago.

Nepal’s climatic condition offers only two windows—spring and autumn—for elections at once throughout the country. If that window is missed, the election could be held only in the spring of 2017. That leaves just three windows to hold elections for three tiers of the government before the country runs into “another constitutional crisis”, EC officials warn.

Given the limited window of opportunity, election officials are worried that government’s indifference towards the election body would make it difficult to complete election cycle before the term of the incumbent Parliament expires.

If, for some reason, parties fail to find consensus on holding elections for one or the other tier of the government in any of three remaining windows, this would mean a major crisis.