A 35-year-old former rapper is on track to become Nepal’s next prime minister. Early counting in the elections on Friday (7 March) showed Balendra Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was leading in around 100 seats, far ahead of rivals.
The election is the first in the South Asian country since a youth-led uprising over a social media ban and government corruption in September 2025 killed 77 people and forced then Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to reign.
The Nepali Congress, currently in second place, has already conceded defeat. Final results are expected within days.
Shah, who was previously mayor of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, joined the RSP last year as its candidate for prime minister.
The RSP has promised to create 1.2 million jobs, increase Nepal’s per capita income from $1,447 to $3,000 and provide safety nets such as healthcare insurance for the entire population within five years.
Unemployment and low wages have pushed millions of Nepalis to search for work overseas in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Around 1.67 million Nepali citizens emigrated in 2024.
As mayor of Kathmandu, Shah focused on improving urban infrastructure, such as waste management, as well as healthcare.
But he also faced criticism, including from Human Rights Watch, for allegedly using police to seize the properties of street vendors and landless people.
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