KATHMANDU: Nepal's centrist party of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah took an early lead in the high-stakes parliamentary election on Friday (March 7), but counting was slow after the first polls since a deadly uprising last year.
Shah's party loyalists danced on the streets of Kathmandu in celebration but the number of votes counted remained too low to be confident that they would translate into concrete wins.
Early trends issued by the Election Commission put Shah's Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) ahead by Friday afternoon, 24 hours after polls closed.
Alongside Shah, key figures vying for power include Marxist leader KP Sharma Oli, the four-time prime minister who was ousted by the September 2025 anti-corruption protests, and the newly elected leader of the Nepali Congress party, Gagan Thapa.
RSP was leading in more than 100 of the 165 constituencies by 8:00 pm (1415 GMT).
However, there were only five declared results, with RSP and Nepali Congress both claiming two seats. The Nepali Communist Party won one seat.
Prakash Nyupane, a spokesman for the Election Commission, said counting was continuing "in a peaceful manner" across the Himalayan nation, from snowbound high-altitude mountain regions to the hot plains bordering India.
Voters have chosen who will replace the interim government in place since the uprising, 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 over corruption and a woeful economy.
Kunda Dixit, publisher of the weekly Nepali Times, told AFP that, if trends were reflected in final wins, the political shift was dramatic.
"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," he said.
'Fate of the country'
The polls are among the most hotly contested in the Himalayan republic of 30 million people since the end of a civil war in 2006.
All eyes are on the results in the key head-to-head battleground constituency of Jhapa-5, a usually sleepy eastern district, where 35-year-old Shah directly challenged the 74-year-old Oli.
Shah, better known as Balen, snappily dressed in a black suit and sunglasses, has cast himself as a symbol of youth-driven political change.
At 8:00 pm local time, with 20 per cent of the votes counted in Jhapa-5, Shah was ahead by nearly five times as many votes as Oli.
Soldiers with armoured trucks manned barbed wire barricades around the counting centre in Jhapa.
"I hope this result changes the fate of the country for the better," Bhagawati Adhikari, 38, told AFP 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."
'Rest peacefully'
More than 3,400 candidates ran for 165 seats in direct elections to the 275-member House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, with 110 more chosen via party lists. Turnout was 59 per cent.
Full nationwide tallies could take several days.
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.
Sushila Karki, the interim prime minister, praised the peaceful conduct of a vote she has said was critical in "determining our future".
Karki, a 73-year-old former chief justice who reluctantly left retirement to lead the nation, now faces the challenge of managing the reaction to results.
The election saw a wave of younger candidates promising to tackle Nepal's dismal economy, challenging veteran politicians who have dominated for decades and argue that their experience guarantees stability and security.
In Jhapa, 68-year-old shopkeeper Ved Prasad Mainali sat listening to a radio.
"Oli may lose, but his supporters won't come out on the streets. If they do, they will face an opposition from a larger crowd that wants change," he told AFP.
"To Oli, I would like to say that he has ruled for many years -- he has done some good for the country, now he should just rest peacefully. Jhapa is ready to welcome a new prime minister." - AFP
