Ex-rapper's political party leads early results in Nepal's first election since 2025 youth revolt

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Preliminary and partial results released Saturday showed a new political party led by an ex-rapper leading Nepal's parliamentary election, the country's first since last year's youth-led revolt.

The Rastriya Swatantra, or National Independent, Party, had already won 27 of 165 directly elected seats and was leading in 90 other constituencies in the results published by Nepal's Election Commission.

Its prime ministerial candidate is rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, who won the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral race and emerged as a leading figure in the 2025 uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.

The 35-year-old highlighted health and education for poor Nepalis as a key focus of his campaign, which rode a wave of public anger toward traditional political parties.

He's running directly against Oli in a southeastern district, where he has a substantial lead on the former prime minister as counting continues.

The six other seats that have been called went to the Nepal Congress party and two communist parties.

Voters are directly electing 165 members to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Parliament. The remaining 110 seats in the 275-member body will be allocated through a proportional representation system, under which political parties are allocated seats based on their share of the vote.

Vote counting was continuing in most of country's constituencies Saturday and final results are expected within the next two days. Ballot boxes were being collected from remote mountain villages in the northern parts of the country using helicopters.

The election is widely seen as a three-way contest, shaped by voter frustration over widespread corruption and demands for greater government accountability.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party was founded only in 2022, but gained huge support this election, emerging as the front- and posing a strong challenge to two long-dominant parties: the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)

The 2025 protests against corruption and poor governance were triggered by a social media ban before snowballing into a popular revolt against the government. Dozens were killed and hundreds injured when protesters attacked government buildings and police opened fire on them.