Nepal Election Results 2026 LIVE Updates: Balen Shah's RSP Heading For Landslide Victory As It Wins 27 Seats, Leading On 97

Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah’s newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was on Saturday heading towards a sweeping victory in Nepal’s first general elections since the violent Gen Z protests, shattering the dominance of established political parties in the politically fragile nation.

According to the Election Commission’s data available from 161 of the total 165 constituencies, the RSP has won 27 seats with a clean sweep in all 10 constituencies of Kathmandu district in the elections held on Thursday.

The Nepali Congress has secured victory in five seats, the Nepali Communist Party has won two seats and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) has won one.

Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) leader and prime ministerial candidate Balendra “Balen” Shah has taken a commanding lead over former prime minister KP Sharma Oli in Nepal’s Jhapa-5 constituency, according to the latest vote count.

Election Commission figures show Shah with 39,284 votes, far ahead of CPN-UML chair Oli, who has secured 10,293 votes.

In 2022, a structural engineer with a signature pair of black rectangular sunglasses and a history in the underground rap scene did the unthinkable. Balendra “Balen” Shah dismantled the established political machinery of Nepal to become the Mayor of Kathmandu.

Running as an independent under the symbol of a walking stick, Balen secured 61,767 votes, comfortably outstripping veterans Sirjana Singh of Nepali Congress, who fell back with 38,341 votes, while CPN-UML candidate Keshav Sthapit, also the former Mayor of the capital, got 38,117 votes.

Now, just four years later, the 35-year-old is no longer just a local phenomenon; he is poised to become one of the youngest Prime Ministers in the nation’s history.

RSP was on Saturday heading towards a sweeping victory in Nepal’s first general elections since the violent Gen Z protests, shattering the dominance of established political parties in the politically fragile nation.

According to the latest Election Commission data, the RSP has won 20 seats and is ahead in 98 others.

The Nepali Congress has won four seats and is leading in 11 others, while the CPN-UML has won a seat and is leading in 11 constituencies. The Nepali Communist Party has bagged two seats and is leading in 10 constituencies. The Shram Sanskriti Party is now leading in only three seats, as opposed to six earlier.

Former Kathmandu mayor and rapper Balendra Shah-associated Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), continued to maintain a wide margin in the ongoing vote count. It is headed for a landslide victory in Thursday’s parliamentary polls as it is already leading in 98 seats, with wins in 19 seats officially declared.

As per the Election Commission, vote counting is underway in 135 constituencies out of the 165 under the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) category, as of Saturday morning.

In the count, Balen’s RSP is taking the lead as it has won 19 seats out of the 27 constituencies where the vote count under FPTP is already over.

Speaking to ANI, Joint Secretary and spokesperson of the Nepal Election Commission Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said, “This election was planned in special circumstances. There were some doubts among the people about the success of the selection, but due to the effective cooperation from political parties, candidates, all voters, Govt of Nepal, the private sector, the media and all sectors, we were able to successfully conclude the elections.”

Referring to the role of young voters after the earlier protests, Bhattarai said, “Gen Z has been very much supportive in this election. Their participation in this election process has also been positive in terms of Candidates as well as voters.”

India is closely watching Nepal’s election, expressing hope that a stable government will emerge in the politically fragile Himalayan nation and help advance bilateral development ties.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in Delhi on Friday that India looks forward to working with the new government to further strengthen the “robust multifaceted ties” between the two countries.

Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) chair Rabi Lamichhane has won the Chitwan-2 seat with 54,402 votes.

His closest rival, Nepali Congress candidate Mina Kumari Kharel, secured 14,564 votes, while CPN-UML’s Asmin Ghimire received 6,942 votes and Nepali Communist Party’s Pratap Gurung polled 4,965 votes.

Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah’s newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was on Saturday heading towards a sweeping victory in Nepal’s first general elections since the violent Gen Z protests, shattering the dominance of established political parties in the politically fragile nation.

According to the latest Election Commission data, the RSP has won 18 seats and is ahead in 99 others.

The Indian government has signalled its readiness to work with the incoming administration in Kathmandu as the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) nears a historic victory.

Speaking in Delhi, ministry of external affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that India looks forward to building on “robust multifaceted ties” for mutual benefit. Jaiswal reaffirmed India’s commitment to peace and stability in the Himalayan nation, noting that New Delhi provided the requested logistical supplies to support the conduct of these pivotal elections.

Hundreds of supporters took to the streets across Nepal, singing, dancing, and celebrating as former Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Balendra Shah’s party, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), claimed an absolute two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election in the country’s House of Representatives as counting continues.

Supporters danced to songs praising the soon-to-be Prime Minister, Balendra Shah, popularly known as “Balen”, at counting centres, ringing the bells–the election symbol of the party.

Long before Balendra Shah- known simply as Balen- became the Mayor of Kathmandu or the frontrunner to lead Nepal as Prime Minister, he was saying exactly what he thought about his country’s political class. He was just saying it in rap.

The songs Balen Shah made before politics came calling were a sustained, angry and remarkably consistent critique of Nepal’s entrenched elites, broken democratic promises and a system that claimed to represent ordinary people while consistently failing them.

China on Friday congratulated Nepal for conducting the elections smoothly and on schedule, while keeping a close watch on early results showing heavy losses for the pro-Beijing CPN-UML led by former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Speaking at a media briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing was “glad to see Nepal advance its political agenda smoothly” and reaffirmed that China values its ties with Nepal as a traditionally friendly neighbour

Among the frontrunners are KP Sharma Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML), Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress, and Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s CPN (Maoist Centre).

The newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) led by former rapper Balendra Shah, who was also the mayor of Kathmandu, is also posing a tough challenge to the seasoned political parties.

Nepal’s House of Representatives consists of 275 seats. Of these, 165 members are elected through direct voting in constituencies, while the remaining 110 seats are distributed through a proportional representation system.

Under proportional representation, political parties nominate lawmakers based on the share of votes they receive nationwide.