Disclaimer: Last week’s article stated that former prime minister Jhala Nath Khatal’s wife passed away in the arson of his home; recent reports from a variety of sources (NDTV, India Today) claim that Khatal’s wife, Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, is alive, but in critical condition.
Barely a week after Gen Z set Kathmandu on fire and Nepal’s then-prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli announced his resignation, Nepal has a new prime minister leading the country.
One that was elected by the most Gen Z means of them all – Discord.
A prime minister marking many firsts – the first female prime minister of Nepal and the first prime minister elected through Discord in the world.
Organized by Hami Nepal, a Gen Z group that was a driving force behind the protests with over 160,000 members, the virtual poll based on Discord came after hours of debate on who to elect to the vacant office and settled the matter both democratically and rapidly – debates started after the imposition of curfews across Nepal on Sept. 9 and settled on a final name by the evening of Sept. 10.
Using the channel Youth Against Corruption, the group hosted a virtual debate with over 10,000 people participating on the platform itself and 6,000 more on a mirrored livestream on YouTube, after the first platform failed to allow the additional participants to log on.
Following a heated debate which even included attempts to reach out to candidates in real time to answer attendees’ questions, the participants of the world’s first Discord election selected 73-year-old former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki to serve as the nation’s interim prime minister with Karki being sworn in on Sept. 12, within three days of Oli’s resignation.
Karki isn’t permanently the prime minister. She’s set to step down within six months to make way for a more permanent government after official elections on Mar. 5, 2026.
While such an effective election of a new prime minister is certainly cause for celebration, many in Nepal are still mourning the devastating impacts of such a traumatic and violent upheaval.
Over 72 were killed in the protests and the violence marked the deadliest to plague the Southeast Asian nation in decades with rampant arson, vandalism, and looting. Government offices particularly have faced the brunt of the violence with senior advisor at International Crisis Group Ashish Pradhan, according to BBC, comparing the destruction of government services to “the toll of the 2015 earthquake which took almost 9,000 lives.”
With over 300 government offices across the country facing destruction and $21.3 billion projected in losses – nearly half the nation’s GDP, the emotional scars left by the protest threaten to exceed its physical damages, despite the tremendous change and multiple firsts wrought by this world-shaking event.
