KATHMANDU: Nep­al’s centrist RSP party of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah won a majority in parliament with 182 seats, Election Commission results showed on Thursday.

The March 5 vote elected a new 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, with 165 seats chosen directly and 110 through a proportional representation vote.

“The counting of votes for the election of members of the House of Representatives... has been completed,” Election Commission spokesman Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said in a statement.

In direct elections, RSP won 125 of the 165, and secured another 57 in PR votes, leaving them only two seats short of securing a powerful two-thirds majority.

The Nepali Congress, which was the biggest party in the last parliament, secured 38 seats and the Marxists of now-defeated KP Sharma Oli trailing with 25 seats. The Maoists have seven seats.

“A letter has been sent to the concerned political pa­­r­­ties today to select the na­­m­­es of the candidates, and submit them to the Comm­ission within three days,” Bhattarai said.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2026