Rapper-politician Balendra Shah’s party wins Nepal election

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Kathryn Armstrong

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Who is the 35-year-old rapper set to become Nepal’s PM?

The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has won a landslide in Nepal’s election - the first held since last year’s youth-led protests toppled the then government.

The RSP received 182votes in the final tally - falling short of achieving a two-thirds supermajority in the parliament’s lower house by two seats. Nevertheless, it is the biggest win for a single party in Nepal in decades.

TheNepali Congress came in second with 38 votes, while the Communist Party of Nepal UML (CPN-UML) was third on 25**. **Voter turnout was around 60% of the nearly 19 million eligible voters.

The result puts the RSP’s Balendra Shah - a rapper-turned-politician - on track to become the country’s next leader.

It is expected to take at least a week for the new government to be formed.

The result is an amazing turn in fortune for the RSP, which was only founded in 2022 and came fourth in the election held that same year. Shah, like the party he only recently joined, is largely untested - his only political experience so far has been as the mayor of the capital, Kathmandu.

The landslide is all the more significant because the country’s mixed political system - which uses a combination of first past the post and proportional representation - is mathematically designed to prevent such domination by a single party.

The outcome of the election reflects a desire for change that was seen during the election campaign, with parties courting Nepal’s key youth bloc with promises of addressing issues including unemployment, economic stagnation and inequality.

These were the same problems that saw youth-led protests that broke out last year, initially against a social media ban, escalate. Demonstrators criticised Nepal’s political system and the symbolism of class inequality, “nepo babies” - children of the country’s politicians.

A total of 77 were killed during the protests, and a BBC investigation revealed the country’s police chief issued an order allowing the use of lethal force against thousands of unarmed protesters.

The demonstrations eventually saw the then leader, KP Sharma Oli, ousted - only for him to stand again as a prime ministerial candidate, expressing confidence he would be re-elected.

Not only did his party, the CPN-UML, come third in the election, Oli was beaten decisively by Shah in the Jhapa 5 constituency - a former stronghold for the 74-year-old.

Gagan Thapa, the new leader of the Nepali Congress - the country’s oldest democratic party - also lost his seat to an RSP candidate.

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