More than 3,400 candidates in run for 165 seats in direct elections to 275-member House of Representatives
\n KATHMANDU
\nCounting was underway in Nepal on Friday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election that could reshape the country\u2019s leadership following 2025 protests that toppled the government.
\nKey figures vying for power include a Marxist former prime minister seeking a return to office, a rapper-turned-mayor bidding for the youth vote, and the newly elected leader of the powerful Nepali Congress party.
\n\u201cCounting has begun in most places in a peaceful manner,\u201d Prakash Nyupane, a spokesman for the Election Commission, said Friday.
\nSome results are expected later Friday, but full nationwide tallies could take several days.
\nEven then, negotiations to form a government may drag on if \u2014 as many analysts predict \u2014 no single party secures an outright majority.
\nSushila Karki, the interim prime minister, praised the peaceful conduct of a vote she has said was critical in \u201cdetermining our future\u201d.
\nVoters have chosen who replaces the interim government in place since the September 2025 uprising, in which at least 77 people were killed, and parliament and scores of government buildings were torched.
\nYouth-led protests under a loose Gen Z banner began as a demonstration against a brief social media ban, but were fed by wider grievances at corruption and a woeful economy.
\n\u201cCongratulations to the Nepali people for successfully conducting a historically peaceful election… thereby providing the country with a democratic and constitutional resolution,\u201d Karki said late Thursday after voting ended.
\n\u2018Better path\u2019
\nThe polls are one of the most hotly contested elections in the Himalayan republic of 30 million people since the end of a civil war in 2006.
\nThe challenge that Karki \u2014 a 73-year-old former chief justice who reluctantly left retirement to lead the nation \u2014 now faces will be managing the reaction to the results.
\nThousands of soldiers and police have been deployed.
\nMany are watching results in the single constituency of Jhapa-5, a usually sleepy eastern district, where two key prime ministerial hopefuls went head-to-head.
\nKP Sharma Oli, the 74-year-old Marxist leader ousted as prime minister last year and seeking a return to power, was challenged by former Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah, a 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician.
\nShah, from the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), snappily dressed in a black suit and sunglasses, has cast himself as a symbol of youth-driven political change.
\nAlso in the race as aspiring prime minister is Gagan Thapa, 49, the new head of the country\u2019s oldest party, Nepali Congress, who has said he wants to end the \u201cold age\u201d club of revolving veteran leaders.
\nMore than 3,400 candidates ran for 165 seats in direct elections to the 275-member House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, with 110 more chosen via party lists. Turnout was 59 percent.
\nMira Ranjit, 49, who voted in the capital, Kathmandu, clapped as ballot boxes were collected under heavy guard and taken to counting centres late on Thursday.
\n\u201cA new leader should emerge who can guide our country and show a better path for the nation, so that the Gen Z protest achieves its goal,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t need anything more than this. Many mothers lost their children, and their demands should be fulfilled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 3,400 candidates in run for 165 seats in direct elections to 275-member House of Representatives KATHMANDU Counting was underway in Nepal on Friday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election that could reshape the country\u2019s leadership following 2025 protests that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include a Marxist former prime minister seeking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-535228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n