Tech

How Nepal’s Gen Z Used Discord to Elect a Prime Minister: Inside the World’s First Digital Power Transfer

When Nepal’s political system collapsed in 2025, no one expected that the leadership void would be filled not in parliament or a palace, but in a sprawling Discord server where thousands of young Nepalis debated, fact-checked, and ultimately voted for former Chief Justice Sushila Karki to lead an interim government. Now considered the world’s first mass digital election for a national executive figure, this article revisits how the “Youths Against Corruption” server became an improvised civic assembly, how its grassroots vote forced the state to recognise a digital mandate, and why global analysts continue to debate the implications for future governance.

In September 2025, Nepal became the first country in history to choose a head of government through a public vote on Discord. This retrospective examines how a youth-led digital movement filled a political vacuum and rewrote the rules of democratic legitimacy.

A governance model examining how digital tools—such as online deliberation platforms and e-participation systems—reshape political decision-making