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Hundreds of supporters took to the streets across Nepal, singing, dancing, and celebrating as former Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Balendra Shah's party, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), claimed an absolute two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election in the country's House of Representatives as counting continues.
Supporters danced to songs praising the soon-to-be Prime Minister, Balendra Shah, popularly known as "Balen", at counting centres, ringing the bells--the election symbol of the party. Speaking to ANI, Dol Prasad Aryal, vice president of RSP, stated that the party expects a two-thirds majority in the upcoming parliament. "One hundred and eighty-six. Yes, in total we are expecting one hundred and eighty-six seats," Aryal said as he exited a counting centre on the outskirts of Kathmandu on Friday afternoon. Balendra Shah, a former rapper and mayor, is poised to become the next Prime Minister of the Himalayan Nation, after a clean sweep in the election, held in the wake of last year's September Gen-Z unrest, which toppled the government led by the PM KP Sharma Oli. The two-day protest saw the deaths of at least 77 protestors after police opened fire on demonstrators, who were mainly college students and members of the public. Thursday's election, held after a six-month gap, recorded a preliminary voter turnout of about 60 per cent. Observers view the outcome as a potential new dawn for Nepal. "Maybe I think every foreign country is talking about Nepal's corruption. They're discussing; they're talking about Nepal's corruption, corruption, corruption. When we started our party, the RSP felt that we needed to work to reduce corruption almost to zero--that's our main agenda. Everyone needs to feel that we have a government for them, and they need to feel it from the heart. As we plan to provide development, delivery is the major agenda for now in this country, and we hope we will succeed," the RSP Vice President added. With vote counts still underway for the 165 seats contested under the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system, the RSP is currently leading in over 100 seats with three confirmed victories as of 7:30 PM local time. Rival, Nepali Congress, is far behind, leading in only 12 seats with two victories, while the CPN-UML, led by the deposed PM Oli, has yet to record any victories but is leading in 11 seats. KP Sharma Oli himself is trailing behind Balendra Shah, who currently leads by over 13,000 votes, while Oli trails with a margin of just over 3,000 votes. Final results, covering 165 directly elected seats and 110 through proportional representation, are expected within the next week. (ANI)
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