On 5 March, nearly 19 million citizens of Nepal will vote to choose a new House of Representatives. The campaign rhetoric is full of promises ~ clean governance, jobs for the young, a reset for a restless republic. But before ballots are counted, the country must confront a harder question: what has been learned from the gunfire that shattered Kathmandu last September? The general election comes barely five months after police opened fire on anti-corruption protesters near parliament, killing 19 people in a single day. The collapse of the government led by KP Sharma Oli followed within hours.

An interim administration took charge, pledging accountability and fresh polls. Yet as the campaign enters its final stretch, responsibility for the decision to deploy lethal force remains contested, blurred between senior police officers and civil authorities. This vote is therefore not just a contest between the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), the Maoist Centre, or insurgent forces such as the Rastriya Swatantra Party led by Balendra Shah. It is a referendum on whether the state’s chain of command can withstand public scrutiny. In a democracy, the use of live ammunition against civilians is not a tactical detail; it is a constitutional moment.

Among those killed was 17-year-old Shreeyam Chaulagain, shot while moving away from the confrontation, still in his school uniform. His death has come to symbolise something larger than a single tragedy. It represents the point at which public distrust hardened into fury ~ fuelling the unrest that brought down a government and forced the country back to the polls. The scale of the September unrest ~ 77 deaths in total over two days, torched police stations, and the army deployed onto the streets of the capital ~ underscores how quickly institutional miscalculation can spiral into national trauma. What began as a youth protest over corruption metastasised into a crisis of state legitimacy. What failed that day was not merely crowd control. It was clarity. The capital’s administration imposed a curfew. Officers on the ground reported being overwhelmed.

Senior officials, including then police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung, have disputed who authorised the escalation. In the fog of overlapping authority, live rounds were fired. When command responsibility dissolves into mutual denial, democratic legitimacy follows. Now candidates promise reform. They speak of tackling corruption, generating employment, and restoring stability. Yet stability imposed without accountability is brittle. If voters are to believe that March 5 marks renewal rather than reset, they will need more than manifestos. They will need credible answers about who gave the order, under whose authority, and why. A republic proves itself not by avoiding crisis, but by responding to it lawfully. Nepal’s young voters ~ many of whom first mobilised in anger last year ~ will judge this election by whether it narrows the gap between state power and public trust. Until the chain of responsibility is repaired, every campaign speech will echo against the memory of September

Backgrounder: Nepal Elections

The Himalayan state has what is called a mixed electoral system, which was introduced in its 2015 constitution.

Game of Thrones: Who will be the next Nepal PM; a controversial veteran, a media-hyped disruptor or an old party face?

The election follows deadly protests that forced the government to resign last year. Voters will now decide which leader can command a majority and form the next government.

The year 2025 was in the news for many reasons and one of them was the Gen Z phenomenon.

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