From protests to Discord polls: How Nepal’s Gen Z chose their new Prime Minister

Ban on as many as 26 social media apps in Nepal is one of the reasons that triggered people to come to streets, alleged rampant corruption was another.

When government buildings in Nepal were burnt down, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and senior officials forced to resign, plunging the Himalayan nation into chaos following massive protests, the Gen Z protesters turned to the most youth-savvy channel to choose their next leader — a social media platform named Discord. Yes, the same Discord popular among gamers for trading strategies.

Even after that ban on social media platforms was lifted, the Gen Z of Nepal was not satisfied. They wanted change.(File/Prabin Ranabhat/AFP)

Now, the curfew in Nepal has been lifted and the nation also has a new interim Prime Minister — Sushila Karki, Nepal’s former and first woman chief justice. At 73, she comes from a generation far apart from those who led the protests, but that is the choice they made, and they made it through Discord.

What is Discord?

Discord, launched in 2015, is a communication platform built originally for gamers to be able to communicate with each other without having to leave the game. Discord says it is “great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community.”

People can also customize their own space on the platform to talk, play, or just hang out.

One of the many features of Discord is high quality and low latency streaming, which makes it feel like “you're hanging out on the couch with friends while playing a game, watching shows, looking at photos.” Other features include text, audio, and video channels, as well as screen sharing, and moderation tools.

How did Gen Z use Discord to choose their next leader?

Ban on as many as 26 social media apps in Nepal is one of the reasons that triggered people to come to streets to march against the government, alleged rampant corruption in the country was another. Even after that ban was lifted, the Gen Z of the Himalayan nation was not satisfied. They wanted change. They wanted the entire old regime to go, fragments of which — the public buildings across the country — they burnt down. And when it came to choose what next, they turned to exactly what was taken away from them — social media.

Over 100,000 citizens of Nepal met regularly in a virtual chat room on Discord to discuss who would lead their country now, according to report by the New York Times dated September 11.

“The Parliament of Nepal right now is Discord,” the report quoted a 23-year-old from Kathmandu, Sid Ghimiri, as saying.

The channel was organised and mostly managed by members of a civic organisation, Hami Nepal, and had several members joining in on a regular basis. People who were protesting on the streets were also chatting on the channel to make decisions for their future.

The organisers of the channel also met with the Nepal army to put forth a suggestion for an interim leader. Among the names that were discussed on the channel were a onetime political candidate Sagar Dhakal, and Kulman Ghising, a former chief of Nepal electricity board, according to the NYT report.

Following several polls and discussions, the name that was zeroed in on was of Sushika Karki, the country’s former chief justice. She later emerged as the top choice and took oath as the country’s interim Prime Minister on Friday.

A channel moderator, Shaswot Lamichhane, told NYT that “the point was to simulate a kind of mini-election”. He added that while the discord group was not representative of the entire country, its objective was to come up with a name for an interim leader.

How did Discord ex-employee react

A user on X (formerly Twitter), Anjney Midha, quoted a post talking about the report of how Nepal’s youth chose their next leader via Discord, and wrote, “This is not what I meant when I told the team we had to design for all kinds of use cases.”

Midha worked with Discord for two years from 2021-23 as VP, product and ran its platform ecosystem, according to his LinkedIn.

Currently, he is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he invests in AI, infrastructure, and open source technology, according to the company’s website. He also serves on the boards of Black Forest Labs, Luma AI, Mistral AI, Sesame AI, LMArena, and OpenRouter.

Elections in Nepal announced

Just hours after Sushila Karki took oath as Nepal's Prime Minister, the date for elections there was announced — March 5, 2026, which is around six months away.

"I, Sushila Karki... take an oath in the name of the country and the people to fulfil my duty as the prime minister," Karki said as she was sworn into office by President Ram Chandra Paudel on Friday.

To which, Paudel said, "Congratulations! We wish you success, wish the country success."