Nepal polls: Rastriya Swatantra Party ahead in 109 seats, Balendra Shah leads ousted PM Oli

The newly-formed Rastriya Swatantra Party held a significant lead over other parties in Nepal as counting of votes in the general election was underway on Friday.

The three-year-old party was leading in 109 seats, while the Nepali Congress was ahead in 12 seats.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party has registered wins in the Kathmandu-1, Kathmandu-6 and Kathmandu-8 seats.

The Nepali Congress had also secured one victory, clinching the Mustang-1 seat.

Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, who has been positioned as the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s prime ministerial candidate, was leading ousted Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, securing 11,945 votes in the Jhapa-5 seat. Oli, who heads the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) had won 2,692 votes. Shah, 35, is the former mayor of Kathmandu.

Polling to elect 275 members of Parliament in the country took place on Thursday. A voter turnout of 58% was recorded.

Of the total, 165 seats will be decided through direct voting. The remaining will be allocated under the proportional representation system, with political parties nominating lawmakers based on the share of votes the parties get.

Election Commission officials had said declaring the final result could take ​a week, as ⁠counting of proportional representation votes would take some time.

This was the first general election in Nepal after the widespread protests in September that toppled the Oli government.

According to the counting trends on Friday, the Nepali Congress, which had put forward 49-year-old Gagan Thapa as its prime ministerial candidate, was ahead in nine seats.

Oli’s Communist Party of ​Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and the Nepali Communist Party, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, widely known as Prachanda, were leading in 11 seats each.

The crisis that led to Oli’s ouster had begun following protests sparked by Nepal’s ban on 26 social media platforms on September 4.

Although the Oli government lifted the social media ban on September 8, the agitation snowballed into a broader protest against alleged corruption and misgovernance. A day later, Oli resigned from his post.

At least 72 persons were killed in the protests.

The demonstrations were described as a protest mainly by “Gen Z”, generally referring to persons born between the late 1990s and 2010.

On September 12, Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, was appointed interim prime minister until a new government is formed.

On Thursday, more than 3,400 candidates ⁠from 65 parties contested the general election.

Also read:

• Nepal: After Gen Z uprising, youth hope that elections will usher in a new, united politics
• Nepal’s election is referendum on its future and democracy in South Asia