At has finally dawned on the current rulers in Kathmandu that the only path to legitimacy is representation sanctioned by the people. It is never too late to learn that lesson.

The political party leadership smells a rat in the government's election talk. It is convinced the polls are a ploy by the king to buy time. That may be true, but can't be an excuse to dismiss elections outright.

When King Gyanendra sacked Sher Bahadur Deuba on 4 October 2002, he invoked the constitution saying that a prime minister who couldn't hold elections as planned did not deserve to stay in power. Now, the tables are turned. Can his royal government deliver on the polls it is about to announce? Or is it banking on things getting so much worse that it will never have to answer that question?

If the Maoist blockades are a sign of things to come, it will not be easy to hold elections. Even if multi-phased polls are held, the process is sure to be considerably unfree and unfair. As we have seen this week, all it takes is to set five buses on fire to bring the entire central part of the country to a grinding halt. The security forces can do little more than hover overhead in choppers.

There couldn't be a more difficult time to hold polls. The only questions are: how and what kind? There seems to be no other way out of the present trilateral deadlock. The Maoists could seize the opportunity to put up a political front, the king could get a face-saving way to invoke Article 127 once more and take himself back to a pre-October Fourth position, and the parties could go back to the people.

This country has been blundering on the wrong road for the past two-and-half years. We can get back on the peace highway by reversing gears and undoing the wrong turns of the past by:

. Setting up an acceptable election government made up of all parties
. Set dates for staggered local and national elections
. In that period, renegotiate a monitored ceasefire
. Conduct credible elections for new parliament
. Negotiate a sustainable peace
. Debate and implement constitutional changes

The alternative is to keep on this blood-soaked road till god knows when. Allowing people representation from the grassroots to national levels is the only way to restore peace, preserve our unity, strengthen the constitutional monarchy, and ensure economic progress.