Nepal’s prime minister-in-waiting came to power on a promise of change.
Now he faces the monumental challenge of taking on a system weighed down by corruption and poor governance while meeting the towering expectations of the millions who backed him and his anti-establishment party.
Balendra Shah – a rapper, engineer and former mayor of Kathmandu popularly known as Balen – handily defeated former prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli in the election on March 5, with his Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) securing a parliamentary majority.
It marked a clear break from the Himalayan nation’s revolving door of old-guard leaders. But the incoming administration has no time to rest on its laurels.
Its to-do list, which spans reviving a struggling economy to shoring up institutions weakened by years of political instability, is daunting.
“Our economy is almost in a slumber,” said Bhojraj Poudel, an economist and founder of the Institute for Future, a Kathmandu-based policy research think tank.
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