Balendra Shah ‘Balen’ was on Friday appointed as the Prime Minister of Nepal, making him the youngest elected leader to hold the top executive post in the Himalayan nation.
President Ramchandra Paudel appointed Balen, the parliamentary party leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), as the prime minister in accordance with the Article 76 (1) of the Constitution, states a notice issued by the President’s Office.
The 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician has also become the first prime minister from the Madhes region.
President Paudel is scheduled to administer oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed prime minister at the President’s Office Sheetal Niwas at 12.34 pm, according to Kiran Pokharel, press advisor to the president.
A unique blend of Hindu and Buddhist religious tradition will feature during Balens’ swearing-in ceremony. The ceremony will comprise elaborate religious rituals including Shankhanad (conch blowing) by seven brahmins, recitation of Vedic hymns or Swasti Bachan by 108 Hindu Batuks or young brahmins and Mangal Bachan or recitation of Buddhist scripture by 107 Lamas, according to sources close to Balen.
He is likely to form a small cabinet with the number of ministers ranging between 15 to 18, the sources added.
Nepal chose former Kathmandu mayor and fresher Balendra Shah ‘Balen’ – popular only as Balen – and his RSP to form the next government decimating the traditional parties in the first general elections since last year’s violent Gen Z protests that sought generational change and corruption-free regime.
The RSP that had projected Balen as the prime ministerial candidate, secured a massive 182 seats out of a total 275 seats in the House of Representatives (HoR), making it eligible to form a majority government under Article 76 (1) of the Constitution.
Of the 275 members of the HoR, 165 are elected through direct voting and 110 through proportionate voting.
On Thursday, all the newly elected members of the HoR took oath.
Balen, the former Kathmandu mayor, defeated four-time prime minister K P Sharma Oli in the Jhapa-5 constituency, a long-standing stronghold of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), by a huge margin