JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Six months after the youth-led protests that ousted a prime minister, voters in Nepal head to the polls on Thursday. The elections will determine who leads the country next. From Kathmandu, Danielle Preiss reports on what Nepalese voters are looking for.
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DANIELLE PREISS, BYLINE: At a campaign event for the Rastriya Swatantra Party, or RSP, 24-year-old Puja Banstola (ph) says after the September protest, she wants change.
PUJA BANSTOLA: We fight for anti-corruption. But it led to something that we never wanted. We lost 76 lives during that time. And this election is the result of that protest.
PREISS: Nepal's politics have long been dominated by shifting coalitions between the centrist Nepali Congress and two communist parties. A coalition led by the Communist Party of Nepal was in power when police opened fire on Gen Z demonstrations against corruption on September 8, killing 19.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Yelling in non-English language).
PREISS: Massive protests erupted the next day, ending in more deaths and the fall of the government. An interim government led by the country's first woman prime minister, Sushila Karki, was formed until elections could decide the future. For those at this campaign event, that future should be led by the outsider party, RSP, and its popular rapper-turned-former mayor of Kathmandu, Balendra Shah. Shah is challenging former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, who was ousted in the September protests and is running again. For Banstola, if RSP doesn't emerge as a winner...
BANSTOLA: That will be a very bad situation for our country because we have fighted (ph) for the better government. And if the same government came into the position again, then we will not find any change.
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PREISS: At a local Nepali Congress office, 39-year-old pharmacologist Savita Gautam (ph) cites her long family history with the party as her reason for support.
SAVITA GAUTAM: My father was Nepali Congress, my grandmother was Nepali Congress, so I like to say that Nepali Congress is in my blood.
PREISS: She says Congress will bring the changes protesters sought, like stopping corruption and brain drain. But RSP is flashier on social media. And that's where RSP is trying to convince especially young voters that they are the party of change.
GOPAL KRISHNA SIWAKOTI: So many young voters, as first-time voters, also register. The number is about, I think, a million.
PREISS: Gopal Krishna Siwakoti runs the National Election Observation Committee. He says many young voters took advantage of an exceptional window allowed for voter registration in November.
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PREISS: Back at the Nepali Congress office, Bimal Gurung (ph) says Nepal's oldest party has changed, citing their youngest prime ministerial candidate, Gagan Thapa. The 49-year-old has replaced another nearly 80-year-old previous prime minister.
BIMAL GURUNG: We welcome all the new parties. But they do not have the backbone, infrastructure, the things that is needed to lead the country.
PREISS: He says Congress is the party of the working-class people and the only party who can lead after the election.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS CHIMING)
PREISS: At a small Hindu temple by the remnants of the old Hilton Hotel set ablaze during the protest, Hindu holy man Indra Prasad Poudel (ph) blesses worshippers.
INDRA PRASAD POUDEL: (Chanting in non-English language).
PREISS: The 80-year-old has sat at this temple for the last two decades. He says things have changed a lot.
POUDEL: (Through interpreter) Before, it was peaceful. I didn't know about political things. But whatever we needed to do, we could get done without paying bribes.
PREISS: Poudel says everyone he talks to now wants to give RSP a chance. He does, too. And he's cautiously optimistic for change. But he and the rest of Nepal will have to wait and see. For NPR News, I'm Danielle Preiss in Kathmandu.
(SOUNDBITE OF HI-TEK SONG, "ALL I NEED IS YOU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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