KATHMANDU: A three-year-old party won Nepal’s general elections by a landslide, authorities said, positioning its candidate Balendra Shah to become the next prime minister, with a mandate for the rapper-turned-politician to restore political stability.
The March 5 election was the Himalayan nation’s first vote since demonstrations against corruption last September led by Gen Z protesters that killed 77 people and toppled the government.
“If everything goes well, we can expect that it can give a stable government for five years,” said constitutional expert Purna Man Shakya, referring to splits over dividing up the spoils of office that doomed prior majority governments.
Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won 182 seats in the 275-member parliament, the Election Commission said on Thursday, the largest majority of any party in more than six decades.
That holds out hope for stability in a nation that has seen 32 changes of government in the last 35 years, battering investors’ confidence while crippling economic and jobs growth.
“We are encouraged by the victory,” said newly-elected lawmaker Sisir Khanal, a senior leader of the winning RSP. “The mandate has made us very responsible.”
The election relegated the oldest party, the Nepali Congress, to distant second place with just 38 seats, while the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) of former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli won only 25.
