Balendra Shah, foreground, former mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan Metropolis and prime ministerial candidate of the Rastriya Swatantra Occasion, arrives to obtain his victory certificates after defeating former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli of the Communist Occasion of Nepal–Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) in Jhapa, about 267 miles (430 kilometers) southeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, March 8, 2026.
Niranjan Shrestha/AP
conceal caption
toggle caption
Niranjan Shrestha/AP
KATHMANDU, Nepal — A Nepali political social gathering led by an ex-rapper is ready for a landslide victory within the nation’s first parliamentary election since Gen Z protests ousted the previous management that has dominated the Himalayan nation for many years.
The Rastriya Swatantra, or Nationwide Impartial Occasion, shaped solely 4 years in the past, had already received 103 of 165 immediately elected seats and led in 21 different constituencies within the outcomes printed Sunday morning by Nepal’s Election Fee.
Different political events and unbiased candidates had received 27 seats in whole thus far. Officers had been nonetheless counting the votes Sunday and closing outcomes had been anticipated later within the week.
The social gathering’s prime ministerial candidate is rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, who received the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral race. He emerged as a number one determine within the 2025 rebellion that ousted former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.
In Nepal, voters immediately elect 165 members to the Home of Representatives, the decrease chamber of Parliament. The remaining 110 seats within the 275-member physique are allotted by a proportional illustration system, beneath which political events are assigned seats based mostly on their share of the vote. On Sunday, RSP additionally led with about 51% of the 110 seats.
The comparatively new RSP has unseated the 2 long-dominant events: the Nepali Congress and the Communist Occasion of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), who’ve taken turns ruling the nation.
Native papers known as the sweeping win a historic second. “RSP set for a landslide victory,” mentioned the favored The Himalayan Instances. “Individuals’s poll revolt; shift in political paradigm,” mentioned Annapurna Publish.
RSP supporters have been celebrating the win in a number of constituencies, providing the winners flower garlands, bouquets, scarfs and smearing them with purple vermilion powder.
The social gathering officers, nevertheless, have requested their candidates and supporters to chorus from victory rallies or every other public celebrations out of respect for the handfuls of lives misplaced throughout final 12 months’s youth-led protests.
In Nepal, voters get two poll papers, one to decide on a candidate of their selection who’s normally a political social gathering nominee and the opposite to decide on a celebration they like.
RSP clearly has greater than half the immediately elected seats and the outcomes of the second poll additionally present the social gathering has greater than 50% of the votes in its favor. They require the help of half the whole variety of members within the decrease chamber of Parliament to type a authorities.
Final 12 months’s protests towards corruption and poor governance had been triggered by a social media ban earlier than snowballing into a preferred revolt towards the federal government. Dozens had been killed and a whole bunch wounded when protesters attacked authorities buildings and police opened hearth on them.
