Rabi Lamichhane did not need a single ballot to stay on as president of the Rastriya Swatantra Party. He was the only person who registered for the job, so the party’s Central Election Commission declared him elected unopposed on Tuesday night at the first national general convention, held in Chitwan.
Bhuvan KC, who heads the commission, confirmed it. The win gives Lamichhane a second consecutive term at the head of a party founded in 2022. Prime Minister Balendra (Balen) Shah, the party’s senior leader, proposed his candidacy. A candidate needs one proposer and 51 supporters.
The real contest is for the Central Committee. The party constitution exempts the president and the senior leader from election, but the other 99 members must win their seats at the convention. Nominations ran until midnight on Tuesday. Voting was set to begin Wednesday at 8:00am. Election officials estimated that more than 4,500 eligible voters would need about eight hours to finish, and KC said first-round results would come two hours after polls close.
The convention has 3,849 representatives taking part.
What the political report says
Lamichhane presented his political report to a closed session. Titled “From Zero to Singha Durbar in Four Years,” it asks why the founders went into politics at all. Most of them, he said, came from media, the professions and other social sectors where they had questioned the state and pressed for reform. They concluded that the state machinery had become unresponsive and that real change meant entering the system.
The report blames power-centric politics, corruption, opportunism and the influence of middlemen for damaging democracy. It describes democracy as “stifled by leaderocracy (netatantra)” and manipulated by those middlemen. Past movements such as Naya Shakti and Bibeksheel made waves but changed nothing structural, Lamichhane said. Shah’s election as mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the report argues, exposed wide dissatisfaction with the traditional parties.
It also praises the current government, led by Shah, listing its top 10 achievements under the heading “A Government Sowing Trust and Inspiring Hope.” They include better service delivery, asset investigations of senior officials, constitutional amendment consultations, and help for cooperatives’ victims.
A change of ideology
The party began with “Constitutional Socialism” in its manifesto and in the preamble to the Jaleshwor meeting. Lamichhane’s report drops it. Treating the constitution as an “ism” is inappropriate, he concluded, and the party now names “Social Democracy” as its goal. Former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai had urged the party at the opening session to reconsider its position on constitutional socialism.
The report lists five pillars: a competitive liberal economy, rule of law, accountable government, a welfare state, and an equitable and inclusive society. It repeats the party’s call for a directly elected executive and a fully proportional voting system, which Lamichhane says would curb election costs. He also proposes restructuring the provincial assemblies and turning the National Assembly into a non-partisan house of experts.
