Nepal counts votes after key post-uprising election

Counting was underway in Nepal on Friday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country's leadership following 2025 protests that toppled the government.



Key figures vying for power include Marxist leader KP Sharma Oli, the ousted four-time prime minister, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, bidding for the youth vote, and the newly elected leader of the Nepali Congress party, Gagan Thapa.



In Kathmandu's tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up - suggesting Shah's centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead.



Prakash Nyupane, a spokesman for the Election Commission, said that counting was ongoing "in a peaceful manner" across the Himalayan nation, from snowbound high-altitude mountain regions to the hot plains bordering India.



Voters have chosen 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.