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Nepal Heads to Polls in Post-Uprising Election
(MENAFN) Nepal launched a landmark parliamentary election Thursday, with roughly 19 million voters casting ballots to fill all 275 seats in the lower House of Representatives — the first national poll since youth-driven protests dismantled the country's government just six months ago.
The House of Representatives, originally elected in November 2022 for a five-year term, was forcibly dissolved last September as mass demonstrations — spearheaded by Nepal's Gen Z generation — brought the nation to a breaking point. Protesters torched the parliament building, the prime minister's office, the Supreme Court, and numerous private businesses in a furious push against entrenched corruption and deepening inequality. The unrest claimed more than 70 lives.
Facing an ungovernable crisis, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli stepped down under pressure. Veteran retired jurist Sushila Karki was subsequently appointed interim leader, tasked with stabilising the country and delivering elections within a six-month window — a deadline her administration has now met.
Under Nepal's dual electoral framework, 165 parliamentary seats will be decided by a first-past-the-post system, while the remaining 110 will be distributed through proportional representation. The upper chamber — the National Assembly — is not directly elected by the public but instead chosen by provincial assemblies and lower-house representatives.
Among the 19 million eligible voters, over 900,000 are casting ballots for the first time. Many are rallying behind younger, reform-minded candidates, deliberately sidelining veteran politicians seen as ineffective or corrupt.
The most closely watched candidacy belongs to Balendra Shah, the former mayor of the capital Kathmandu and a structural engineer by profession. Considered a strong frontrunner for the prime ministership, Shah resigned from his mayoral post to contest a seat in Jhapa-5 — the home constituency of ousted former premier Oli — in a move widely seen as a direct political challenge to the old guard.
The House of Representatives, originally elected in November 2022 for a five-year term, was forcibly dissolved last September as mass demonstrations — spearheaded by Nepal's Gen Z generation — brought the nation to a breaking point. Protesters torched the parliament building, the prime minister's office, the Supreme Court, and numerous private businesses in a furious push against entrenched corruption and deepening inequality. The unrest claimed more than 70 lives.
Facing an ungovernable crisis, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli stepped down under pressure. Veteran retired jurist Sushila Karki was subsequently appointed interim leader, tasked with stabilising the country and delivering elections within a six-month window — a deadline her administration has now met.
Under Nepal's dual electoral framework, 165 parliamentary seats will be decided by a first-past-the-post system, while the remaining 110 will be distributed through proportional representation. The upper chamber — the National Assembly — is not directly elected by the public but instead chosen by provincial assemblies and lower-house representatives.
Among the 19 million eligible voters, over 900,000 are casting ballots for the first time. Many are rallying behind younger, reform-minded candidates, deliberately sidelining veteran politicians seen as ineffective or corrupt.
The most closely watched candidacy belongs to Balendra Shah, the former mayor of the capital Kathmandu and a structural engineer by profession. Considered a strong frontrunner for the prime ministership, Shah resigned from his mayoral post to contest a seat in Jhapa-5 — the home constituency of ousted former premier Oli — in a move widely seen as a direct political challenge to the old guard.
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