Former hip-hop artist Balendra Shah poised to sweep Nepalese polls in overwhelming victory

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Nepal’s centrist party of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah looked set to win by a landslide in parliamentary polls, according to Election Commission trends on Saturday, but with counting still far to go.

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The high-stakes parliamentary election on Thursday came six months after deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the government, with at least 77 people killed.

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The September 2025 youth-led demonstrations, under a loose Gen Z banner, began over a brief social media ban but quickly tapped into broader grievances over corruption and a struggling economy.

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According to early trends issued by the Election Commission on Saturday, 35-year-old Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was on track to win a majority in the 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament.

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“Looking at the trend, the Rastriya Swatantra Party has taken the lead in many places and has won several seats,” commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai told AFP.

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If the trends are confirmed by the vote count, 35-year-old Shah’s victory over a veteran Marxist leader — and his rise from city mayor to potential prime minister — would mark one of the most dramatic results in recent Nepali politics.

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“This is heading to a landslide victory — this reflects the frustration that has been building up,” said Chandra Dev Bhatta, a political analyst.

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“It is actually the people’s revolt against the established political parties,” he added.

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“The people understand that the new do not really have strong agendas, but it is a punishment to the parties for their decades-long poor governance.”

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– ‘A day will come’ –

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By Saturday morning, on the second day of counting, there were only 34 declared results — RSP took 27, Nepali Congress won four, and the Marxist party of ousted prime minister KP Sharma Oli was trailing with one.

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Former Maoist guerrilla commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal has one seat for his party.

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But trends showed that Shah’s RSP was also leading in 90 of the 165 constituencies in the direct elections.

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It had secured comfortably more than half of the votes so far counted in the proportional representation vote, which determines a further 110 seats via party lists.

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Bhattarai said results from direct elections would be ready by Monday, but longer for full results to be ready.

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“According to our plan, it will take at least a week to count the proportional votes, after which the election will go through the official process,” he added.

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He said that vote counting was “going smoothly” across the Himalayan nation, from snowbound high-altitude mountain regions to the hot plains bordering India.

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On Friday, Shah’s party loyalists danced on the streets of Kathmandu in celebration — even though the votes counted remain low, and final results could take days.

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DP Aryal, RSP deputy chairman, issued a message urging supporters to hold back on celebrations.

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“Once we work, a day will come for us to celebrate,” he said in a post on social media late Friday.

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Shah has also taken a commanding lead in the seat he is contesting — a head-to-head contest against the 74-year-old ousted prime minister Oli, symbolising the clash between the old guard and a youth-driven call for change.

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Better known as Balen, Shah first leveraged his music fame and strong social media following to become Kathmandu’s first independent mayor in 2022.

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Nepali Congress, the largest party in the past coalition government, saw its new leader, Gagan Thap,a trailing in his own constituency.

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“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,” said Kunda Dixit, publisher of the weekly Nepali Times.

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In Jhapa, soldiers with armoured trucks manned barbed wire barricades around the counting centre.

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Yagya Prasad Adhikari, a 49-year-old businessman who travelled from Kathmandu for the vote, said he supported the calls for calm before full results were ready.

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“We want someone who works, not someone who talks,” he said. “We support Balen not celebrating.”

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Meanwhile, the burnt-out ruins of Oli’s home in Jhapa — torched during the unrest, like hundreds of other buildings, including parliament — serve as a reminder of the deadly violence that occurred last year.

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Dharmakala Gautam, 74, who watched the house burn, said she was tired of promises by politicians that never materialised.

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“When the Maoists came to rule, we hoped for change — but not much happened,” she said. “I will keep some hope this time too.”

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AFP

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