Vote counting continues in Nepal election – what is the latest result?

BBC:

Counting of votes in Nepal’s general election held on 5 March, shows the party of rapper and ex-Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah on course to win in a landslide.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party’s (RSP) win marks the first time in decades that a single party has garnered a majority in Nepal which has a two-system format that makes it difficult for any one party to win outright.

The snap election was held six months after deadly youth protests toppled the government in September 2025.

Who is ahead according to results released so far?

As of 6:00 local time in Nepal on Monday (12:15 GMT), Balendra Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has won 124 of 165 seats determined by direct voting as well as 58 of the 110 seats decided by proportional representation.

Officials are currently tallying numbers for the 165 seats which will be decided via the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system. This means the candidates with the most votes wins the seat.

The RSP has put forward rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah as its prime ministerial candidate.

He defeated the former Nepalese Prime Minister Sharma KP Oli in his parliamentary constituency, taking him one step closer to becoming the country’s next prime minister.

If he is confirmed in that position, that would make him the youngest prime minister in the history of Nepal.

When will we know the final result of the Nepal election?

The full counting will be finished in a “few days”, says Election Commission spokesman Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, said according to AFP.

Most of the results have already been released in both counts – FPTP and PR.

The speed of the results is a huge departure from previous polls.

During the last election in 2022, it took nearly two weeks for results to be released.

This is because some polling stations are located in difficult, hilly terrain – more than 80% of Nepal is mountainous – which makes the collection of ballot boxes a challenging logistical exercise.

Some need to be carried down by hand, for instance, while others have to be airlifted in and out of polling stations.

Planes and helicopters are also not allowed into some remote areas after dark, which often means collection can begin only the next morning. Bad weather also interferes with the collection process.

In one remote village in Mustang district, where just four villagers were registered to cast their votes, 20 officials were deployed to deliver election materials as well as to supervise voting and ensure security on election day.

A further 35 eligible voters from the village live in other parts of the country, but recent heavy snowfall has made it difficult for them to return.

Nepal’s law requires citizens to cast their ballots in their registered constituency, which is often where they were born.

Counting of votes, which is done by hand, also usually takes a long time. Every political party would dispatch representatives to the counting centres and they will inspect every open ballot cast before they are counted.

These representatives have sometimes been known to dispute issues like results and the validity of votes, which had previously led to recounts, further delaying the process.

How did the vote take place?

Nearly 19 million people, including almost a million first-time voters, registered to take part in the ballot to elect 275 members of parliament.

The election commission said 60% of registered voters took part in the poll.

Most of the MPs – 165 of them – will be elected through first-past-the-post voting, meaning the candidate with the most votes wins the seat. The other 110 MPs will be selected via proportional representation (PR), which takes into account the proportion of votes cast for a political party.

This two-system format makes it difficult for any one party to win outright, so whoever comes out top in the election will most likely need to govern in a coalition.

According to the election commission, there were 6,541 candidates in total. Some 3,406 are standing in directly elected seats – more than 1,000 of them aged under 40 – while 3,135 candidates are contesting under the PR system.

Voting started at 07:00 local time (01:15 GMT) and continued until 17:00 local time.

Who are the main players in the Nepal election and where are the key contests?

Not only did Balendra Shah take a parliamentary seat from former prime minister Oli, he also won with the highest vote total ever recorded in a Nepali election.

The large number of winning candidates under the age of 40 in this election, including Shah, shows that the political pendulum has firmly swung in favour of the youth, says Amish Raj Mulmi, an analyst based in Kathmandu.

Oli, 74, and his government were forced to resign last September amid mounting public anger at long-entrenched corruption and social inequality in the Himalayan republic.

His party, the RSP, has also nudged other more established parties out of the running.

The Nepali Congress, the country’s oldest and largest party by membership, was projected as a strong contender only managed 17 seats in the direct vote – a distant second to the RSP which has 124 seats at last count.

Oli’s party, the Communist Party of Nepal UML, which won the second-largest share of seats in the last election has only won eight seats this time, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) led by former Maoist leader Prachanda has won seven.

What are the main issues in the Nepal election?

The authorities said 77 people were killed during last September’s demonstrations, many of them protesters shot by police. Crowds set fire to many buildings, including parliament, the Supreme Court and central government secretariat.

The protests were triggered by a ban on social media but fuelled by anger against corruption, unemployment and economic stagnation.

These are the main issues in the 5 March vote.

Most political parties have put particular focus on issues such as better governance, fighting corruption and reducing employment in their manifestos, which is being widely seen as a nod to the frustrations that led to the toppling of the previous government.

The Nepali Congress, for instance, has proposed holding a high-level investigation into the assets of public office holders since 1990.

This election has important geopolitical ramifications too.

Neighbouring India, which has historically had an outsized role in Nepal’s political history, is watching closely. It has had a fractious relationship with former prime minister KP Sharma Oli in the past.

This is primarily because it sees Oli as someone who has actively pursued a closer relationship with China, India’s rival, during his several terms as prime minister.

China has a major influence in Nepal and will be hoping that any future government is supportive towards its interests in the country, including the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The US has also been playing a role in this election and has been more aligned with India in terms of its strategic objectives, observers say.