Narendra Shrestha / EPA
Nepal’s newly elected Prime Minister Balendra Shah during the swearing-in ceremony
The former rapper’s anti-corruption message became a viral phenomenon, which ousted classical parties from power in Nepal.
The ‘rapper’ who became mayor of Kathmandu, Balendra Shahand whose party won this month’s legislative elections in Nepal, took office today as the country’s prime minister, six months after a .
“I, Balendra Shah, in the name of the people and the country, promise to respect the Constitution and loyally fulfill my duty as Prime Minister”, he declared, dressed in black and wearing sunglasses, when taking the oath before the president of the country, Ram Chandra Poudel.
Shah, 35, was elected to the House of Representatives by defeating former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, 74, who was ousted from power last September by protesters. Shah’s centrist Independent National Party (RSP) won a absolute majority of 182 of 275 seats.
Civil engineer by training, gained notoriety in the hip-hop scene Nepalese underground by denouncing elite corruption and inequalities. This young rapper’s popularity soared in 2022, when he was elected, to everyone’s surprise, Mayor of Kathmandu.
In the campaign, he presented himself as spokesperson for the demands of Generation Zpromising to end elite corruption and unemployment, which forces many Nepalis to emigrate.
Discreet since the elections, Balendra Shah only broke the silence on Thursday night, when he published a video on social media in which appealed, through musicfor the unity of the country. “Nepalese united, history is on the march”, he sang in this rap video, accompanied by images from the election campaign.
Since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008, Nepal has been mired in instability political, 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, which transformed the anti-corruption message do ex-‘rapper’ num viral phenomenonwhich ousted the classical parties from power, leaving the Himalayan nation under an interim government.
