Hope and scepticism among Nepal's voters ahead of first election since Gen-Z protests

Record ID: 2360619

  • Title: Hope and scepticism among Nepal's voters ahead of first election since Gen-Z protests
  • Date: 4th March 2026
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 2, 2026) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF THE PRINCIPAL CAST AND DIRECTOR OF "THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW" (L-R) ACTORS MICHAELA JAÉ RODRIGUEZ, JOSH RIVERA, JULIETTE LEWIS, LUKE EVANS, DIRECTOR SAM PINKLETON, ANDREW DURAND, STEPHANIE HSU, AMBER GRAY, RACHEL DRATCH, HARVEY GUILLEN POSING FOR PICTURES LEWIS POS
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: GenZ Kathmandu Lalitpur Nepal Swayambhu temple batting bowling brick kiln cricket elections government ground labourers protests uprising voting workers
  • Location: LALITPUR AND KATHMANDU, NEPAL
  • City: LALITPUR AND KATHMANDU, NEPAL
  • Country: Nepal
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA002049303032026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Nepal is heading to a general election on Thursday (March 5), the first after youth-led protests last September demanding an end to corruption, more jobs and cleaner politics led to the deaths of 77 people and forced the government to resign.
    For decades, the small Himalayan nation ensconced between China and India has been riven by political instability, with 32 changes in government since 1990, leaving its largely agrarian economy hamstrung and forcing millions to seek work abroad.
    Nearly 19 million of Nepal's 30 million people are eligible to vote to pick a 275-member legislature, of which 165 candidates are directly elected and 110 selected via proportional representation. 
    About one million of these voters—most of them youth—were added after last year's protests, which has amplified calls for overhauling Nepal's political system and reforming the economy to create formal jobs with better wages. 
    While most of the focus and conversations have centred around the young voters whose disenchantment with the old guard is likely to usher in a young leadership and hope for sweeping changes, many warn that youth alone cannot complete the picture.
    54-year-old temple priest, Kiran Buddhacharya, said: "I feel Gen Z alone cannot build Nepal. They need to seek help from the older generation to build the country together. This is what I hope."
    At a brick kiln in the neighbouring town of Lalitpur, labourers start working in the dust-heavy environment from early morning to eke out their daily wages. For them there is little hope from the elections.
    “I have no hope from the government. Previously, I had placed my hope on the leaders but they all turned out to be bloody thieves,” said 43-year-old labourer Shaligram Pun. 
    In the race are the old guard, including the centrist Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist or UML), which have dominated national politics for decades. 
    But most analysts say the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is at the forefront. 
    Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, 35, joined the three-year-old party in January as its prime ministerial candidate.
    A former mayor of the capital city Kathmandu who emerged as the face of September protests, Shah is going head-to-head against the UML's K.P. Sharma Oli, 74, a four-time premier who quit following the September killings of the demonstrators.
    However, among the youth, there is hope that Shah would fulfill the dreams that their brothers and friends died fighting for during the September protests.
    Nepal's election will be the second in the region—following Bangladesh—to be triggered by Gen Z-led protests, but the dynamics are markedly different, said Jay Nishaant, founder of the Nepal Democracy Foundation think tank.
    (Production: Thomas Suen, Sunil Kataria)
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