Balendra Shah, foreground, the former mayor of Kathmandu and the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s prime ministerial candidate, arrived to receive his victory certificate after defeating former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli in Jhapa, about 430 kilometers southeast of Kathmandu, on March 8, 2026. (Niranjan Shrestha/AP)
KATHMANDU, Nepal — A political movement led by a onetime rapper appears headed for a sweeping victory in Nepal’s first parliamentary election since youth-led protests upended the country’s long-established leadership.
The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), founded four years ago, had captured 103 of the 165 directly elected seats and was leading in 21 more constituencies in results released Sunday by the Election Commission. Other parties and independents had won 27 seats so far. Election officials were still tallying ballots and expected to announce final results later in the week.
RSP’s prime ministerial candidate, Balendra Shah, who rose to prominence after winning the 2022 Kathmandu mayoralty, was a visible leader in the 2025 protests that helped remove former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli from power. He defeated Oli in the Jhapa contest and has become the public face of the party’s rapid rise.
Nepal’s lower house has 275 seats: 165 are filled by direct, first-past-the-post voting and the remaining 110 are distributed through proportional representation based on party vote shares. Preliminary counts showed RSP leading with roughly 51% of the proportional votes, giving the party a commanding position across both ballots.
The result represents a major shake-up in Nepali politics, displacing the two parties that have dominated national government for decades — the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist).
Local newspapers described the outcome as historic. The Himalayan Times ran headlines calling it a landslide, while Annapurna Post framed the tally as a decisive shift in the country’s political paradigm.
RSP supporters celebrated across several constituencies, greeting winning candidates with flower garlands, bouquets, scarves and smearing them with red vermilion powder. Party leaders, however, urged restraint and asked candidates and backers to avoid large victory rallies out of respect for the dozens who died during last year’s protests.
Under Nepal’s two-ballot system, voters choose both a local candidate and a preferred party. With more than half of the directly elected seats secured and strong support on the party ballot, RSP is well positioned to command a majority in the lower chamber and to lead government formation.
Last year’s demonstrations began after a social media ban and quickly escalated into a broader uprising against corruption and poor governance. The unrest turned deadly when protesters attacked government buildings and security forces opened fire, leaving dozens dead and hundreds injured.