KATHMANDU: For many young Nepalis, Friday’s historic verdict came with a clear call for the Himalayan country’s new leaders: ‘We voted for you. Now get to work’.In Kathmandu, there were no dhols or gulal left over from Holi to be sprayed in celebration. The city moved in its usual rhythm even as the scale of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP)’s sweep became clear. The generation that drove the Sept 2025 uprising and forced a snap election said the “old parties had been punished”, but the deeper issues that brought them onto the streets — corruption, unemployment, weak public services, nepotism, political impunity and the lack of opportunities — remained unresolved.
With 35-year-old Balen Shah set to become PM, many young voters and protest leaders said the mandate would mean little unless it translated into visible change.Amrita Ban, 23, one of the Gen Z activists at the forefront of the Sept protests, said the new leadership could not afford to repeat the old parties’ habit of selling “false hope and false promises of turning Nepal into Switzerland”. She said: “The old leadership failed because it did not deliver. The new ones have to prove themselves through action and delivery. We’re watching.” For Ban, the first test would not be grand speeches or symbolic gestures, but whether people began to feel change in everyday life. “What we are asking for is basic — an environment to live in our own country. Fix corruption, healthcare and education.” Niraj Adhikari, 28, a construction supervisor who returned from Qatar just in time to vote, narrowly avoiding the flight disruptions caused by the war in West Asia, said the result would matter only if it slowed outward migration. “It is now our duty to build this nation. We should stop the youth from going abroad.”A sharper warning came from Majid Ansari, 25, who was at the forefront of the Sept protests. “The verdict should not be treated as a blank cheque,” he said. “We want criminal accountability for those responsible for the killing of Gen Z protesters and action on the Karki Commission findings into the Sept 8 and 9 violence. We want rule of law, not the rule of men.” Others framed the verdict less as loyalty to a party than as a test for all of them. Prashant Thapa, 22, a Gen Z representative, said, “The real test now is whether the winners move beyond campaign rhetoric and improve public services.” Bibek Rajbhandari, 24, an IT specialist, put it more bluntly. “If the new reformist leaders fail, voters will simply choose someone else,” he said. His summary of the national mood was direct: “Vote first, then hold them to account.”
