Campaign for Nepal’s 5 March election begins
After Generation Z’s anti-corruption demonstrations in September 2025 led to the fall of KP Sharma Oli's government, the Himalayan country is set for an election campaign with an unprecedented mix of old parties and young candidates seeking radical change. Former King Gyanendra is also running with a pro-monarchist party, presenting himself as a guarantor of stability.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) – The start of Nepal’s election campaign yesterday ushered in a period of great prospects but also considerable uncertainty, at least on the short run.
Caretaker Prime Minister Sushila Karki described the vote as an opportunity for democratic expression that “will draw the future of the country”. The former chief justice of the Supreme Court was chosen to head temporarily the government ahead of the 5 March parliamentary elections following the 2025 "September Revolution" led by young protesters.
Nepal’s Generation Z was crucial in overwhelming the ruling political class and government institutions that, for the first time in the Himalayan country's troubled recent history, after they were allowed to engage in grassroots action against the shutdown of social media platforms.
The latter gave young people the opportunity to coordinate protest initiatives and channel their discontent over endemic corruption and misgovernment, which reached its peak with a bloody crackdown on 8 and 9 September, resulting in 77 deaths and at least 2,000 people wounded.
The students directed their anger at the government and the parties that have held power since the end of the brutal Maoist rebellion and civil war in 2006, blaming them for failing to ensure progress and prospects for ordinary Nepalis.
The latest administration was led by Marxist KP Sharma Oli. Although forced to resign, he was not excluded from politics and is running again.
Oli's most direct rival to form the next Nepali government is Balendra Shah, 35, the incumbent mayor of Kathmandu, the Nepali capital, and a popular rapper known as Balen. He will run for the Rastriya Swatantra Party (National Independence Party), the fourth-largest party in the outgoing parliament.
He will face not only Oli's Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) CPN (UML), but also the Nepali Congress (NC) party, the other historic political force that has held or shared power for decades. The party has chosen a new leader, 49-year-old Gagan Thapa, who is less exposed to the old politics and repression.
Finally, the pro-monarchist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (National Democratic Party) will also be seeking voters' support. Dethroned in 2008 and now a businessman, Nepal’s former king, Gyanendra Shah, entered active politics in this election campaign, presenting himself as the guarantor of stability.
Some 19 million Nepalis are eligible to vote out of a population of 30. This includes 800,000 first-time voters, called to elect the 275 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of Nepal’s bicameral parliament. Of the more than 3,400 candidates, a third are under 40.
It is hard to predict the outcome of the vote given the mix of old parties and veteran political figures vying for voters’ support with new movements and young candidates seeking radical change in how to run one of Asia's poorest countries, located between two cumbersome neighbours, India and China.
Nevertheless, the electoral game is now based on the unavoidable precondition, highlighted again by Sushila Karki, of giving “the country a way out.”
Expectations are high, but so is the fear of incidents given the logistical difficulties of an early election. To ensure the security and legality of the path to the vote, 300,000 soldiers, police officers, and thousands of temporary “election police” have been called in.
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