KATHMANDU, Nepal

Nepal recorded about 60% voter turnout on Thursday, in the first elections since Gen Z protests ousted the government of then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli last September.

Ram Prasad Bhandari, acting chief election commissioner, said initial estimates showed around 60% of the total 18.9 million eligible voting population cast a ballot, which began at 7 am local time and concluded at 5 pm.

The polls were largely peaceful.

The last elections, held in 2022, recorded 61.41% voter turnout.

The vote counting will begin once all ballot boxes are transported in the presence of poll agents.

Helicopters will be used to collect ballot boxes from mountainous districts, whereas four-wheelers will be used in hilly districts.

Election officials say it will take at least a couple of days to announce final election results. However, vote counting may begin in some accessible areas like Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.

Elected in November 2022 for a five-year term, the House of Representatives was dissolved last September, at the height of mass protests.

The parliament building, the office of the prime minister, the Supreme Court, and private business firms were burned down by demonstrators demanding an end to corruption and inequalities. More than 70 people died.

The unrest prompted Oli to resign and leading retired jurist Sushila Karki to take over as interim leader.

'My duty over'

Leaders of established parties and Gen Z leaders exercise their democratic rights. Gen Z leaders stressed the need to end impunity while electing new leadership.

“This vote is not just for saving democracy. It’s against the increased wave of impunity, division in politics, and fascism. This is for ensuring political culture,” Gen Z leader Tanuja Pandey said after casting a vote in her home constituency, Jhapa.

The Karki administration has held elections within six months of her taking office.

“My duty is now completed,” she said after voting in Tokha, on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

Around 19 million voters are eligible to elect 165 members of the House of Representatives under the first-past-the-post electoral system. The other 110 lawmakers will be elected under the proportional representation category.

The upper house, known as the National Assembly, is elected by the elected representatives in the lower government and provincial assemblies.

Of the total, more than 900,000 are first-time voters. The majority of them are supporting young leadership to sideline aging and non-performing leaders.

The former mayor of the capital Kathmandu, Balendra Shah, is considered a frontrunner to be the new prime minister.

Balendra is a structural engineer by training. He had resigned from the mayor’s position to contest the election from Jhapa-5, the home constituency of Oli.