Rapper Balendra Shah’s centrist party secures a landslide election victory in Nepal, poised to form the next government after a dramatic political shift.

KATHMANDU: Nepal was counting the final two percent of votes on Wednesday after parliamentary elections, with rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah’s (pic) centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) having secured a majority.

The 35-year-old Shah’s rise from the capital’s mayor to expected prime minister caps a bold gamble. It marks one of the most dramatic results in recent Nepali politics.

The March 5 parliamentary vote was the first since youth-led, deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the government in September. Shah himself defeated veteran four-time prime minister KP Sharma Oli in his own seat.

Voters elected a new 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament. In direct elections, RSP won three-quarters of seats, 125 of 165, according to official results.

In the proportional representation vote, RSP has the biggest share with nearly half of all ballots counted so far. “We are close to finishing the counting now,” Election Commission spokesman Narayan Prasad Bhattarai told AFP.

If final results reflect the current tally, RSP will have secured a landslide victory with a likely total of around 176 seats. This is just short of the 183 needed for a supermajority in the parliament.

Constitutional law expert Bipin Adhikari said it might still take more than a week for Nepal to get a new prime minister. “Once the commission submits its report to the president, he will call on RSP lawmakers to name the prime ministerial candidate,” Adhikari said.

Nepali Congress, the biggest party in the last parliament, secured 18 seats in direct elections. The Marxists of now-defeated Oli won nine seats.

 The Sun Malaysia