Rastriya Swatantra Party Secures Clear Majority in Final Vote Count, Shattering Political Narratives

Kathmandu. The vote counting for the House of Representatives election has reached its final stage. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has secured a mandate sufficient to form a government with a single majority.

The established political parties have been severely defeated in this election. The parties that have dominated politics by citing their history of fighting for democracy and long struggles for the rights of the people failed to be the choice of the public in this election.

This election has dismantled the narrative that the old parties are the political pillars of the country and that politics cannot be conceived without them. In a way, the arrogance held by the old parties and their leaders has been broken.

Most importantly, this election has also refuted the blame previously leveled against the existing electoral system. The narrative that no single party can achieve a majority under this electoral system was consistently established by the old parties and their so-called analyst supporters.

Three parliamentary elections have been held since the promulgation of this constitution. In the 2074 BS parliamentary election, CPN-UML and the then CPN (Maoist Centre) contested as part of a leftist alliance, and their coalition secured a majority. In the 2079 BS election, parties including Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), and CPN (Unified Socialist) formed a coalition, and that coalition secured a majority. In the election held on Falgun 21, there was no coalition among the parties. Nevertheless, the RSP alone has obtained a clear majority. Therefore, the recently concluded election has broken the narrative that it is difficult for any party to secure a single majority through this electoral system.

There was also an attempt to establish the narrative that the current electoral system is expensive and that winning an election requires spending millions of rupees. Leaders of old parties and so-called analysts often spend time establishing such narratives. However, in this election, even candidates considered billionaires were defeated, and candidates like Mahabir Pun were elected by the public donating according to their capacity, let alone the candidate spending their own money. Thus, this election has also shattered the narrative that a candidate must spend a large amount of money to win an election.

The narrative that it is easier for those rich in eloquence to gather public support has also been broken by this election. Compared to many candidates skilled in arguing for the sake of argument and weaving sweet webs of words in speeches, most RSP candidates succeeded in gathering public support without speaking much. The success of RSP's female candidates has also broken the narrative that female candidates cannot succeed in direct elections.