Nepal Heads to the Polls in Early Parliamentary Election Shaped by Youth Uprising

BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA

Nepal is holding parliamentary elections on Thursday in a high-stakes vote taking place just three years after the country’s previous national ballot and only a year after a youth-led uprising forced the collapse of the government elected in 2022.

The early election follows months of political turbulence that culminated in mass protests in September 2025, when demonstrators—many of them young voters—took to the streets to denounce corruption, unemployment and what they described as entrenched political patronage. The unrest led to the resignation of the sitting government and the formation of an interim administration tasked with stabilizing the country and organizing fresh polls.

The vote is being conducted under the supervision of the Election Commission of Nepal, which has reported a significant expansion in the electorate since the last parliamentary election in November 2022. A total of 18.9 million people are registered to cast ballots, an increase of nearly one million voters compared with the previous national vote.

Officials say the rise reflects heightened political engagement following last year’s upheaval. The voting age in Nepal is 18, and authorities carried out an extensive registration drive targeting newly eligible young adults in the months after the protests.

According to commission figures, approximately 966,000 registered voters are men and 924,000 are women. A small number—around 200 voters—are listed under the “others” category, which includes individuals who do not identify as male or female and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The commission has emphasized inclusivity measures at polling stations to ensure equal participation.

Voters are choosing members of the 275-seat House of Representatives, the powerful lower chamber of Parliament. Of those seats, 165 lawmakers will be elected directly through first-past-the-post contests in single-member constituencies. The remaining 110 seats will be allocated under a proportional representation system, with political parties nominating candidates based on their share of the national vote.

Nepal’s parliamentary arithmetic has historically produced coalition governments, and analysts expect that pattern to continue. The country has experienced chronic political instability since the end of its monarchy, cycling through 15 governments over the past two decades. No single party has secured a durable majority in recent memory, and alliances have often proved fragile.

This year’s campaign has been defined by the legacy of the 2025 protests. Political parties across the spectrum have sought to appeal to younger voters by pledging reforms aimed at tackling corruption, strengthening institutions and improving economic governance. Youth unemployment, rising living costs and frustrations over public services have dominated campaign rallies and televised debates.

Two established forces, the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), are once again central players. Both parties were part of the coalition government that fell amid last year’s unrest and now face an electorate that has signaled impatience with traditional leadership.

Challenging their dominance is the National Independent Party, a relatively new political force formed in 2022 that has capitalized on anti-establishment sentiment. The party has campaigned on a platform promising transparency, administrative reform and generational change in leadership.

Its candidate for prime minister is Balendra Shah, the former mayor of Kathmandu who first rose to prominence as an independent political figure and previously had a career as a rapper. Shah has sought to position himself as a reformist outsider capable of bridging the divide between entrenched party structures and a politically energized youth electorate.

Security has been tightened nationwide as polling stations open, with authorities deploying personnel to ensure orderly voting. Observers from domestic monitoring groups are present at selected sites, and preliminary results are expected to begin emerging within hours of polls closing, though the full count—particularly for proportional representation seats—could take several days.

The outcome will determine whether Nepal returns to a coalition led by its traditional parties or ushers in a new political alignment shaped by the momentum of last year’s protests. For many voters, Thursday’s ballot represents not only a choice of representatives but a test of whether the upheaval that reshaped the country’s political landscape will translate into lasting institutional change.