Its official. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), formed less than four years ago, has won Nepal’s general elections by a landslide. The party’s candidate, Balendra Shah, a former rapper, is set to become the next prime minister of the Himalayan nation.
Shah’s RSP won 182 seats in the 275-member parliament, Nepal’s Election Commission said on Thursday, 12 March. This is the largest majority of any party in more than six decades, the officials said.
The March 5 election was the Himalayan nation’s first vote since demonstrations against corruption last September led by Gen Z protesters that killed 77 people and toppled the government led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
“If everything goes well, we can expect that it can give a stable government for five years,” constitutional expert Purna Man Shakya told Reuters, referring to splits over dividing up the spoils of office that doomed prior majority governments.
Party headed by a former TV Presenter
The RSP is led by former television personality Rabi Lamichhane, who serves as the party’s chairman. On 16 June 2022, Lamichhane resigned as managing director of Galaxy 4K television and announced that he would contest the 2022 general elections for a seat in the House of Representatives.
On 21 June 2022, he announced the formation of RSP. The party was formally registered with the Election Commission on 1 July 2022, with Rabi Lamichhane as the founding president, and a bell inside a circle as its election symbol.
The new government comes as a hope for stability in a nation that has seen 32 changes of government in the last 35 years, battering investor confidence and crippling economic and job growth, Reuters reported.
“We are encouraged by the victory,” said newly-elected lawmaker Sisir Khanal, a senior leader of the winning RSP. “The mandate has made us very responsible.”
The election relegated the oldest party, the Nepali Congress, to distant second place with just 38 seats, while the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) of former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli won only 25.
former Chief Justice Sushila Karki succeeded Oli as the interim prime minister tasked with holding the election.
Shah is the former mayor ofKathmanduthe Nepalese capital, whose rap music critical of the establishment gained him near-rockstar-like fame on social media. Shah is the first politician expected to become prime minister who hails from the southern plains, known as Madhesh, where smaller regional groups failed to win a single seat.
The RSP canvassed on a program to fight graft, create jobs and more than double the $42 billion-economy in five years. But its firebrand leader, Ravi Lamichhane, faces charges of misappropriating funds from small savings companies. He denies the charges and has been freed on bail.
Last year’s youth-led uprising in the nation of 30 million nestled between China and India followed a social media ban that drew thousands into the streets, triggering clashes and deaths that forced Oli’s resignation.
Balen Shah on deepening “historic” Nepal-India ties
On Tuesday, Balen Shah expressed confidence in further deepening “historic” Nepal-India ties and making them more “outcome-oriented”.
The 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician made the remarks in a social media post while thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his wishes on the party’s electoral success.
“Thank you for the good wishes honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji,” he said in the post.
“I express my confidence that we will work together to further strengthen, deepen and make more outcome-oriented the historic, close, and multi-dimensional relations existing between Nepal and India in the coming days,” he said.
