Nepal rejects old guard, Balen Shah set to become next PM | World News
2 min readKathmanduUpdated: Mar 6, 2026 08:32 PM In the first election post the September 2025 Gen Z protests that forced out the K P Sharma Oli government, Nepal appeared to have rejected the old guard, voting overwhelmingly for the three-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and clearing the decks for its leader Balendra ‘Balen’ Shah to become Prime Miner.
As counting of votes progressed in 150 constituencies Friday, the RSP won two seats and was ahead in another 106, leaving the Nepali Congress and the Commun Party of Nepal (Unified Marx-Lenin) way behind.
The NC picked up one seat and was leading in 11; the UML was ahead in 12 constituencies. The Nepali Commun Party, a united platform of 19 Commun groups including the erstwhile Mao Centre of Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and the United Socials under Madhav Kumar Nepal, was leading in nine constituencies.
Nepal’s 275-member House of Representatives has 165 seats under the first-past-the-post system and the results are to be announced Saturday. The remaining 110 seats fall under the proportional representational system in which votes polled through separate ballots each party will determine how many seats they have earned.
Thirty-five-year-old Balen Shah, a rapper-turned politician and a former Kathmandu mayor, had taken a healthy lead over his UML rival and former Prime Miner Oli in Jhapa-5.
While most of the old guard fell, Prachanda survived. He was declared winner from the Rukum East constituency.
Gagan Kumar Thapa of the Nepali Congress was trailing a slender margin at Sarlahi-4 in the initial phase of the counting.Story continues below this ad
Apart from Oli, others trailing included UML vice-chairman Bishnu Poudel, Rastriya Prajatantra Party chief Rajendra Lingden, his predecessor Kamal Thapa, senior Nepali Congress leader Shekhar Koirala, billionaire Binod Chaudhary on an NC ticket, Janamat Party chief C K Raut, Janata Samajwadi Party leader Upendra Yadav, NCP leader and former Prime Miner Madhav Kumar Nepal, former Speaker and UML candidate Dev Raj Ghimire.
The huge mandate will see RSP chief Rabi Lamichhane controlling the party. He was Deputy Prime Miner in charge of the Home Minry.
