Nepal’s centrist party RSP of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah had won a majority in direct parliamentary elections, partial official results showed on Sunday, and was heading for a landslide victory according to official trends.
The 35-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was also leading in the proportional representation vote, according to declared results and election commission trends.
The vote was the first since deadly anti-corruption youth protests in September 2025 toppled the government.
Shah himself on Saturday defeated four-time veteran Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, whose Marxist-led government was overthrown by violence last year, in his own seat.
His victory over Oli, 74, and his rise from mayor of the capital to potential prime minister marks one of the most dramatic outcomes in recent Nepali politics.
The youth-led protests of September 2025, under a vague Generation Z banner, began with a brief social media ban but quickly tapped into broader grievances about corruption and a struggling economy.
Thursday’s election elected a new 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, with 185 seats elected directly and 110 through proportional representation voting.
Election observers the Asian Network for Free Elections said on Sunday that the vote had been “peaceful and orderly and reflected continued public commitment to democratic processes despite recent political instability.”
‘Action necessary’
By Sunday afternoon, 153 direct elections had been declared: the RSP dominated with 117, the Nepalese Congress with 17 and the Marxists of the now defeated Oli were behind with seven.
Former Maoist guerrilla commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a three-time prime minister, won his seat and his party took seven in total.
The trends showed that Shah’s RSP was also leading in eight of the remaining 12 constituencies in the direct elections.
In the proportional representation vote, the RSP was leading with almost half of the votes counted, but final results could take several more days.
The Nepali Congress, the largest party in the last coalition government, also saw its new leader, Gagan Thapa, defeated by the RSP.
“The counting is progressing smoothly in all the remaining constituencies,” Election Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said. AFP.
“The results of all direct votes are expected by the end of today, PR (proportional representation) votes will take a few more days.”
Shah, a first-time parliamentary lawmaker, toured the streets of his new constituency on Saturday night, wearing his trademark dark sunglasses and waving from the sunroof of a car in a victory parade among crowds chanting “Balen,” as he is better known.
Shah, who did not make a speech, got more than three times as many votes as Oli, who congratulated the winner and wished him “a smooth and successful five-year term.”
The inquiry commission formed by the Nepal government to probe the deadly violence of September 2025 also submitted its report on Sunday.
So far no one has been held accountable for the deaths.
Its findings have not yet been made public, but were given to Sushila Karki, the caretaker prime minister,
Bigyan Raj Sharma, a member of the commission, told reporters that the team had questioned more than 200 people and submitted a 900-page report, with more than 8,000 additional pages.
“We are trying to conduct investigations for September 8 and 9,” he said.
“Based on what we saw, understood and verified through evidence, we have provided our opinions and recommendations. This is now government property, and the government will take necessary action.”
Oli has denied ordering security forces to open fire on protesters and has said AFP that blames “infiltrators” for the violence.
