Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party surges to 124 direct seats as count nears completion

# Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party surges to 124 direct seats as count nears completion

*Event date: 2026-03-08*

Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party has won 124 direct seats and leads in one more constituency from 164 of 165 seats reported so far, putting the party in a commanding position as counting nears completion.

The result is extraordinary because it shows a landslide in the first-past-the-post contest rather than a narrow parliamentary edge. With only one constituency still to report and another pending because of a legal issue, the party’s dominance is already clear enough to reshape Nepal’s political map.

The event record says the Dhanusha 1 result remains unannounced because of a Supreme Court order. That means the final official picture is still incomplete, but not meaningfully in doubt about the scale of the RSP’s lead.

The proportional vote count tells the same story even more starkly. Covering 45,30,913 total votes, it gives the RSP 22,39,870 votes, nearly half of all ballots cast nationwide and far ahead of its nearest rival. The Nepali Congress follows with 7,60,485, while the CPN-UML has 6,46,770. The Nepali Communist Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Shram Sanskriti Party trail further behind.

That kind of split between direct seats and proportional support suggests the party’s appeal is broad rather than merely tactical. A landslide in both systems implies a deep shift in voter preference and a strong national mood behind the RSP.

The electoral outcome also squeezes the traditional parties. The Nepali Congress and CPN-UML remain important political forces, but the count places them far behind the RSP’s performance. That matters because Nepal’s coalition arithmetic depends on parties being able to convert vote share into bargaining power, and this result changes the scale of those negotiations.

The legal pause in Dhanusha 1 adds a final footnote rather than a major obstacle. The Election Commission has directed that the result be withheld pending a Supreme Court order after the candidacy of RSP candidate Kishori Sah “Kamal” was cancelled earlier over a credit blacklist issue. That dispute matters for the formal record, but it does not alter the broader direction of the election.

For now, the message from the count is unmistakable. The Rastriya Swatantra Party has not just won; it has surged into dominance, and the rest of Nepal’s political class will have to respond to that reality once the final constituency is settled.

The scale of the proportional vote makes the result even harder for rivals to dismiss. A party that wins both constituency seats and a massive share of the party vote can claim something closer to a national realignment than a temporary protest surge. The final certification will matter, but the political meaning is already visible in the numbers.

The final count in Dhanusha 1 may decide a seat, but it will not decide the story. With results this lopsided, the bigger issue is what the election says about the old party order. Nepal’s voters have handed the RSP a mandate that looks both geographically broad and politically disruptive, which is exactly why rivals will be studying the numbers closely.

The last pending constituency may be a procedural footnote, but it will still matter to the official record and to any post-election coalition talks. Even before that result is declared, the scale of the RSP’s success is already clear.