Nepal sets March elections after naming interim prime minister

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s President Ramchandra Paudel dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections on March 5, his office said late on Friday, following a week of deadly violence that culminated in the appointment of the country’s first woman Prime Minister in the interim.

The announcement came just hours after Paudel appointed former Chief Justice Sushila Karki to lead the country, following the deadly “Gen Z”-led anti-graft protests that forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign.

The president “dissolved the House of Representatives … and fixed March 5, 2026, Thursday for the elections”, according to a statement from the president’s office.

Karki was appointed after two days of intense negotiations between Paudel, army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel and the protest leaders behind Nepal’s worst upheaval in years, which left at least 51 people killed and more than 1,300 injured.

Nepal’s southern neighbour, India, said it hoped that the developments would help foster peace and stability.

“Heartfelt congratulations to the Honorable Sushila Karki Ji on assuming the office of Prime Minister of Nepal’s interim government. India is fully committed to the peace, progress, and prosperity of Nepal’s brothers and sisters,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X.

The country-wide protests were sparked by a social media ban that has since been rolled back. The violence subsided only after Oli resigned on Tuesday.

Nepal has grappled with political and economic instability since the abolition of its monarchy in 2008, while a lack of jobs drives millions of young people to seek work in other countries like the Middle East, South Korea and Malaysia.

The country of 30 million people, tucked between China and India, inched back towards normalcy on Friday - with shops reopened, cars back on roads, and police replacing the guns they wielded earlier in the week with batons.