Balendra Shah, Nepal’s youngest prime minister, has been sworn in after his party’s landslide election victory following protests led by young people that toppled the government in September.
A rapper-turned politician, Shah was appointed prime minister by President Ram Chandra Paudel on Friday, after his three-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won 182 seats in the 275-member parliament in the March 5 vote, the first election since anticorruption Gen Z-led protests in which 76 people were killed.
The 35-year-old wore black trousers, a matching jacket, his signature black Nepali cloth cap and sunglasses as he was sworn in at the President House, in the presence of diplomats and senior government officials.
A day earlier, the new premier, better known as Balen, released his first public statement since the historic vote with a rap song shared on social media.
“Nepal is not scared this time, the heart is full of red blood … Laughter and happiness will reach every household this time,” Shah raps in the song titled Jay Mahakaali (Victory to Goddess Mahakali).
His music video, which features visuals of large crowds cheering him during his election campaign, has racked up nearly three million views.
“The strength of unity is my national power,” his lyrics continue.
A former mayor of the capital, Kathmandu, Shah is Nepal’s first Madhesi premier – people of the southern plains bordering India – to lead the Himalayan nation.
China extended its congratulations to Nepal on the swearing-in of Shah, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, adding it will support its Himalayan neighbour in safeguarding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Protests had raged over a lack of jobs and endemic corruption in the country of 30 million, where a fifth of the population lives in poverty and an estimated 1,500 people leave the country daily for work abroad.
Although he did not directly participate in the protests, Shah publicly expressed support for the largely Generation Z demonstrators who led the movement.
Political instability has been an uphill challenge for Nepal, with 32 governments taking office since 1990 and none of them completing a five-year term.
The Nepali Congress party, the country’s oldest party, became a distant second group in parliament with just 38 seats. The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) of KP Sharma Oli, who was forced to resign after the Gen Z unrest, controls 25 members.
Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki led the nation through the interim period up to the parliamentary election.
DW Arabic 
