From protests to polls: Nepal to vote after a Gen Z uprising redraws its political map

Nepal is voting in a high-stakes general election on Thursday — the first since a Gen Z-led movement toppled the government of former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in September last year. A total of 3,406 candidates are contesting in the 275-member House of Representatives.

The election, widely seen as a referendum on Nepal’s old guard, will determine whether the Gen Z uprising translates into lasting political transformation — or whether established leaders reclaim their dominance in the Himalayan nation’s fragile democracy.

The general election comes six months after two days of intense Gen Z-led protests on September 8 and 9, 2025, forced Oli, the chair of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), or CPN-UML, from power. The protests left 77 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.