Nepal’s President Ramchandra Paudel has dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections on March 5, 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 anti-graft protests that forced prime minister KP 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 dead and more than 1,300 injured.
Nepal’s southern neighbour, India, said it hoped that the developments would help foster peace and stability.
“Warm congratulations to the esteemed Sushila Karki Ji on taking up the role of Prime Minister of Nepal’s interim government. India stands firmly dedicated to supporting the peace, development, and well-being of our Nepalese brothers and sisters,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed in a post on X.
Gen Z protests, discord politics
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 overseas.
Karki is known for her insistence on integrity and the need for an independent judiciary.
The 73-year-old emerged as the leading candidate of many young representatives who led the protest movement — who selected her via online platform Discord.
She reported that gen Z protesters told her that “they believe in me” to lead for “a short time for the purpose of doing elections”.
The country of 30 million people inched back towards normality on Friday —with shops reopened, cars back on roads, and police replacing the guns they wielded earlier in the week with batons.
