US EditionEx-Rapper Balendra Shah Wins Landslide Majority in Nepal Election
Balendra Shah's Rastriya Swatantra Party is poised to win a majority in Nepal's 275-seat parliament, driven by youth anger over corruption and economic frustration.
- Reports from the Election Commission on March 12, 2026, show the Rastriya Swatantra Party won 182 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives.
- Fueled by last year's youth-led protests, the Rastriya Swatantra Party capitalized on anti-elite sentiment sparked by a social media ban and corruption grievances.
- Election Commission data show the RSP won 125 of Nepal's 165 directly elected seats and secured 57 seats through the 110 proportional representation system, with turnout around 60% of nearly 19 million eligible voters.
- The Election Commission will ask parties to submit PR names before the president summons parliament, and government formation is expected to take at least a week.
- The result is the biggest single-party victory in decades, unseating veterans including K.P. Sharma Oli, defeated in Jhapa 5, and Gagan Thapa, Nepali Congress leader, who lost his seat.
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271 Articles
Six months after the resignation of the government under pressure from Gen Z, his 35-year-old musician spokesman won the general elections with his party, a victory that should bring a new wind to Nepal's politics.
In the parliamentary elections in Nepal, the National Independent Party won, and the next Prime Minister will be the 35-year-old Balendra Shah, also known as Balen, who was mayor of the capital city and the largest city of Nepal, Kathmandu, for almost four years until January 2026.
He won the election after the Z-generation protests.
BEIJING. A former rapper and former mayor of Kathmandu has won Nepal's election in a landslide. Balendra Shah, 35, is shattering the old political hierarchy that has long ruled the country. This is exactly what the young protesters on the streets wanted the protests to lead to six months ago.
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