The general election is the first since gen-Z protests forced Nepal’s then-prime minister to quit
Nearly six months after a wave of unprecedented youth-led protests forced Nepal’s then prime minister to quit, people have began voting in a general election that is shaping up as a high-stakes showdown between the entrenched old guard and a powerful youth movement.
Key figures contesting the election include the Marxist former prime minister seeking a return to office, a rapper-turned-mayor bidding for the youth vote, and the newly elected leader of the powerful Nepali Congress party.
Nearly 19 million voters will choose who replaces the interim government in place since the September 2025 uprising, in which at least 77 people were killed, and parliament and scores of government buildings were torched.
Youth-led protests under a loose gen-Z banner began as a demonstration against a brief social media ban, but were fed by wider grievances at corruption and a woeful economy.
