Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government.
Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa.
In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead.
Photo: AFP
Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner” across the Himalayan nation, from snowbound high-altitude mountain regions to the hot plains bordering India.
Voters have chosen who replaces the interim government in place since the uprising in September last year, in which at least 77 people were killed, and parliament and scores of government buildings were torched.
Youth-led protests under a loose Gen Z banner began as a demonstration against a brief social media ban, but were fed by wider grievances at corruption and a woeful economy.
“This is even a bigger upset than we expected — it underscores the level of public disenchantment with the old parties for under-performance, as well as anger over the events of September,” Nepali Times publisher Kunda Dixit said.
The polls are one of the most hotly contested elections in the Himalayan republic of 30 million people since the end of a civil war in 2006.
All eyes are watching the results in the key head-to-head battleground constituency of Jhapa-5, a usually sleepy eastern district, where 35-year-old Shah challenged directly the veteran Oli, aged 74.
Shah, better known as Balen, snappily dressed in a black suit and sunglasses, has cast himself as a symbol of youth-driven political change — and early trends suggested he was in the lead.
Soldiers with armored trucks manned barbed wire barricades around the counting center in Jhapa.
“I hope this result changes the fate of the country for the better,” said Bhagawati Adhikari, who was among a crowd of dozens at Jhapa gathered outside the security cordon. “The country should be peaceful and secure, youth should get opportunities, corruption should stop — that’s my appeal.”
More than 3,400 candidates ran for 165 seats in direct elections to the 275-member Nepalese House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, with 110 more chosen via party lists. Turnout was 59 percent.
Some results were expected later yesterday, but full nationwide tallies could take several days.
Even then, negotiations to form a government might drag on if — as many analysts predicted — no single party secures an outright majority.
However, Dixit raised the possibility that Shah’s RSP could stage a dramatic win.
“If RSP hits the magic 138 seats, Balen will become prime minister — and hopefully a cabinet of technocrats,” Dixit said.
Nepalese Interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki praised the peaceful conduct of a vote she has said was critical in “determining our future.”
The challenge that Karki now faces would be managing the reaction to results.
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