Who is contesting Nepal’s polls and what is at stake?
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Former Prime Minister of Nepal K.P Sharma Oli was forced to resign after youth-led protests against corruption in 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
KATHMANDU – Nepal votes in a general election on March 5, its first since deadly youth-led anti-graft protests
Here is a look at the key contenders, and what is at stake.
The voters
Nearly 19 million of Nepal’s 30 million people are eligible to vote in the for the 275-member assembly.
About one million of the voters – most of them youth – were added after the 2025 protests, which killed 77 people and injured more than 2,000.
While direct contests will decide 165 seats, which means the person who gets the most votes will win, the rest will be filled through proportional representation, where seats are allocated to parties in proportion to their vote share.
Election authorities say 65 political parties are in the fray.
Issues at stake
Apart from corruption, job creation is among the main issues, analysts say, with about a fifth of the population living in poverty, and high youth unemployment.
Ties with India and China, which border Nepal and are among its major trade partners, will also be a factor in the election as the landlocked nation negotiates a balance between the Asian powers.
While India accounts for two-thirds of Nepal’s international trade, China accounts for 14 per cent and has also lent the country – among the world’s poorest – more than US$130 million (S$165.6 million), according to the World Bank.
Key contenders
Rapper-turned-politician and former Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah, 35, of the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party is among the frontrunners for prime minister.
Facing him in the Jhapa 5 constituency is four-time prime minister Oli, 74, of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), vying for the top post again but facing an uphill battle to win back young voters who ousted him barely six months ago.
Other contenders include the centrist Nepali Congress party’s 49-year-old Gagan Thapa and three-time prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, 71, who now leads the Nepali Communist Party.
Mr Oli has been a liberal communist since the 1990s while Mr Dahal led a bloody Maoist insurgency for a decade before joining mainstream politics in 2006. REUTERS
