Nepal’s young people overthrew their government last year. Today, they’re choosing a new one.

Nepal’s Gen Z election

Six months after a youth-led uprising toppled its government, Nepal votes today in an election that will test the political power of a generation impatient for change. The outcome is also important for Nepal’s giant neighbours, India and China, who have been competing for influence in the Himalayan state.

Nepal’s Gen Z protests were part of a wave of youth uprisings across the world over the past couple of years, from Morocco and Madagascar to Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mongolia and the Philippines. Sparked by a ban on some social media platforms, Nepal’s uprising was fuelled by anger over economic stagnation, unemployment and corruption within governing elites.

Former prime minister KP Sharma Oli responded to the protests with a brutal crackdown that saw security forces open fire on protesters and killing at least 19 people, among them schoolchildren walking to class in uniform. This action provoked a wave of anger, with crowds in the capital, Kathmandu, setting fire to government buildings, courts, police stations and the homes of senior politicians and business people.

Oli resigned as prime minister in the wake of these protests, after 77 people died and more than 2,000 were injured, and the military invited the protest movement to offer a representative to form a government. A chat room poll on the social media network Discord selected Sushila Karki, a 73-year-old former chief justice of the supreme court, and she formed an interim government staffed by technocrats.

Karki had the support of Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old former mayor of Kathmandu who was previously a rapper and is popular among the Gen Z protesters. Shah is the prime ministerial candidate for the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which was founded in 2022 and is expected to do well in today’s elections.

Sixty-five parties are contesting the election, which uses a mixture of proportional representation and first-past-the-post voting, and more than 150 of the candidates are in their 20s. Many of them are running as independents or for newly formed parties, although Nepali Congress, a long-established liberal democratic party, has replaced its old leadership with younger politicians.

The other two establishment parties, Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Nepali Communist Party, comprising former Maoist rebels, have been slower to adapt to the new political environment. These three parties shared power in Nepal for almost 20 years, failing to deliver sustained economic growth or to ease the unemployment that has driven millions of Nepalis to emigrate.

As prime minister, Oli moved Nepal closer to China, controversially choosing Beijing rather than New Delhi or Washington for his first official visit. Shah has been reticent on foreign policy but he is likely to pursue warmer relations with India while seeking to avoid alienating China.

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