Nepal President Ram Chandra Paudel administered the oath of office to former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as the head of the interim government on 12th September evening. This came days after the fall of the KP Oli government on Tuesday due to the violent GenZ protests.
Along with Karki, Gen-Z representative Sudan Gurung and advocate Om Prakash Aryal have been inducted as ministers. The appointment of the interim government was made under Article 61 of the Constitution. Several diplomats of various governments attended the ceremony.
After the appointment of the interim government, the president dissolved the parliament. The interim government will now hold parliamentary elections to form an elected government.
Sushila Karki, Nepal’s former Chief Justice and the nation’s first female in that role from 2016 to 2017, has become the first female Prime Minister of Nepal. Notably, she also became the first head of a government to be elected on social media, Discord in this case.
Her selection emerged from Gen Z-led protests, which toppled the government of KP Sharma Oli after weeks of unrest that left dozens dead and prompted a failed social media ban. Despite the ban on Discord along with 25 other social media apps, the GenZ protestors managed to use the app mainly used by gamers, and organised and strategized protests. After KP Oli resigned, several names emerged as potential head of the interim government. Therefore, a vote was conducted on Discord to elect the interim chief among 5 candidates.
Sushila Karki won the Discord election with 50% votes in her favour. A total of 7713 votes were cast, out of which Karki got 3833 votes. YouTuber Random Nepali came second with 2022 votes.
