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

Описание: (7 Mar 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bhaktapur, Nepal - 7 March 20206
1. Rukesh Ranjit of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) receiving certificate from election officials after his win
2. Close of certificate
3. Various of Ranjit receiving a scarf
4. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Rukesh Ranjit, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate winning Bhaktapur seat:
”We will try to fulfil the demands and desires of the people with new policies we will adopt now.”
5. Supporters
6. Various of armed soldiers guarding vote counting center
7. Supporters of the RSP party chanting slogans (Nepali) “The next government will be a Balen government.”
8. Supporters dancing, ringing bells
9. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Pradeep Bista, RSP party supporter:
“We need to convert this victory into action by bringing in good governance and that people should actually feel that we are in democracy”
10. Various of celebrating supporters
11. Ranjit coming out of office
STORYLINE:
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.

Rukesh Ranjit, one of the party's candidates, took the Bhaktapur-1 seat on Saturday, to the jubilation of his supporters.

The RSP's 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.

AP Video shot by Upendra Man Singh

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