Narendra Shrestha / EPA
Balendra Shah votes in Nepal elections
Balendra ‘Balen’ Shah clearly wins the elections – and will try to reach the end of the legislature. The internet, the viral phenomenon.
The Rastriya Swatantra party (RSP), led by the former ‘rapper’ Balendra ‘Balen’ Shah, winner as elections no Nepal, ensuring a sufficient majority to form a Government, driven by the “Generation Z“, which overthrew the “old political guard“.
According to the votes counted until this morning, according to the country’s electoral commission, the new political formation has already guaranteed 106 of 165 seats resulting from direct election and leads the count in 19 other constituencies.
In addition to these results, the RSP (National Independent Party, formed in 2022) holds more than 50% of votes in the proportional representation bloc (110 seats), which guarantees it will comfortably overcome the barrier of 138 seats necessary for an absolute majority in a Parliament of 275 members.
With the government already secured, projections indicate that Balen Shah’s party could reach 190 seats once the count is completed in the coming days, which will give it a two-thirds majoritysomething unprecedented in Nepal since the general elections of 1959.
Since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008, Nepal has been mired in instability politics, marked by an incessant dance of alliances between the same traditional leaders, who have exchanged power without being able to complete a single legislature.
A “Generation Z” and urban voters used the digital platforms to bypass traditional media and organize a mass mobilization, transforming the anti-corruption message do ex-‘rapper’ num viral phenomenon which last year ousted the classical parties from power, leaving the Himalayan nation under an interim government.
The rise of the RSP leaves the Nepali Congress, the oldest formation in the country, with just 15 direct representatives, but above all it highlights the setback of the former prime minister and leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist or CPN-UML), KP Sharma Waswho lost his place directly to the Shah himself.
The results at the polls also expel the president of the Nepali Congress, Gagan Thapa, and the only multimillionaire in the country who became a politician, Binod Chaudhary.
Among the “old guard”, only the former Maoist leader and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahalalso known as “Prachanda”, appears to keep his place, with six representatives guaranteed for the formation.
Former head of the Bhoj Election Commission Raj Pokharel told local newspaper Kantipur that the result represents a “eruption of long-suppressed public frustration.” and attributed the collapse of the leaders to decades of a “game of musical chairs” in power.
“Nepal is going through a wave of changes to move away from the control of the old parties. The real question is whether the new leaders will be able to understand this wave and sustain it”, said constitutional expert Bipin Adhikari, quoted by the EFE agency.
