RSP heads for landslide win in first poll post 2025 Gen Z protests
In the first election post the September 2025 Gen Z protests that forced out the K P Sharma Oli government, Nepal appeared to have rejected the old guard, voting overwhelmingly for the three-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and clearing the decks for its leader Balendra ‘Balen’ Shah to become Prime Minister.
As counting of votes progressed in 150 constituencies Friday, the RSP won two seats and was ahead in another 106, leaving the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) way behind.
The NC picked up one seat and was leading in 11; the UML was ahead in 12 constituencies. The Nepali Communist Party, a united platform of 19 Communist groups including the erstwhile Maoist Centre of Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and the United Socialists under Madhav Kumar Nepal, was leading in nine constituencies.
Nepal’s 275-member House of Representatives has 165 seats under the first-past-the-post system and the results are to be announced Saturday. The remaining 110 seats fall under the proportional representational system in which votes polled through separate ballots by each party will determine how many seats they have earned.
Thirty-five-year-old Balen Shah, a rapper-turned politician and a former Kathmandu mayor, had taken a healthy lead over his UML rival and former Prime Minister Oli in Jhapa-5.
While most of the old guard fell, Prachanda survived. He was declared winner from the Rukum East constituency.
Gagan Kumar Thapa of the Nepali Congress was trailing by a slender margin at Sarlahi-4 in the initial phase of the counting.
Apart from Oli, others trailing included UML vice-chairman Bishnu Poudel, Rastriya Prajatantra Party chief Rajendra Lingden, his predecessor Kamal Thapa, senior Nepali Congress leader Shekhar Koirala, billionaire Binod Chaudhary on an NC ticket, Janamat Party chief C K Raut, Janata Samajwadi Party leader Upendra Yadav, NCP leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, former Speaker and UML candidate Dev Raj Ghimire.
The huge mandate will see RSP chief Rabi Lamichhane controlling the party. He was Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Home Ministry.
