Gen Z-backed rapper Balendra Shah poised for landslide win in Nepal

Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old former rapper and ex-mayor of Kathmandu, is on course to become Nepal’s next prime minister after early vote counts showed his Rastriya Swatantra Party sweeping wide swaths of the country. Early results showed the party had won four seats and was ahead in 110 of 165 other contests being tallied, and it was leading in all 10 constituencies of Kathmandu; counting began late Thursday night and continued into Saturday.

Shah defeated veteran leader KP Sharma Oli in the high-profile Jhapa-5 contest, a loss that Oli acknowledged on social media with a concession message, “Congratulations! Wish you a smooth and successful five-year tenure.” At counting centres in Damak, Jhapa district, election officials sorted ballots under guard while crowds watched digital screens displaying unfolding results. Shah toured his constituency on Saturday evening, waving from a sunroof, grinning and flashing a V-for-victory sign as supporters chanted “Balen.”

Election Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai framed the returns as a clear shift: “Looking at the trend, the Rastriya Swatantra Party has taken the lead in many places and has won several seats.” Political analyst Chandra Dev Bhatta characterized the performance bluntly: “This is heading to a landslide victory this reflects the frustration that has been building up.”

The victory sweep, if confirmed, would be the most rapid climb for a new political force in Nepal since the Rastriya Swatantra Party formed in 2022. The party declared Shah its prime ministerial candidate after he joined in January, positioning a political outsider with a cultural profile that resonates with young voters at the top of its ticket. Shah first rose to national attention as a rap artist who won the Raw Barz competition in 2013, an event whose organiser said, “More than a rapper, he was a poet. He was very good lyrically, and talked about suppressed (people).”

The election comes six months after nationwide youth-led demonstrations that began over a brief social media ban and expanded into wider protests against corruption and economic hardship. The demonstrations were violent and deadly; some reports put the toll at at least 77 people killed. Voter turnout in the general election was about 60 percent, reflecting intense civic engagement following the unrest.

Beyond the political upheaval, public health stakes are acute. The protests exposed glaring gaps in emergency response, trauma care and mental health support for a generation that helped drive the uprising. A new government led by Shah will inherit demands for immediate improvements in emergency medical capacity, accountability for the violence that followed the protests and expanded services for youth mental health and economic insecurity. Those are measurable, operational priorities that will shape whether the election delivers substantive policy change for marginalized communities.

Partial tallies also showed notable individual results: Pushpa Kamal Dahal won Rukum Purba with 10,240 votes to Lilamani Gautam’s 3,462, Ranju Darshana of the RSP took Kathmandu-1 with 15,455 votes, and Yogesh Gauchan Thakali of Nepali Congress won Mustang with 3,307 votes. Other smaller parties, including the Shram Sanskriti Party, led in a handful of constituencies.

All counts remain provisional while officials complete tabulation. If the early trends hold, Shah and the Rastriya Swatantra Party will face a mandate to translate youthful anger into concrete reforms, with health system resilience and social equity among the first tests of their governing agenda.