Sushila Karki or Kulman Ghising: The lopsided race to be Nepal’s interim PM

Nepal is staring deep into a political void. The cloud of uncertainty mainly looms around who will be next caretaker prime minister for the nation of 30 million people, which has been rocked by deadly protests this week.

There seemed to be widespread consensus amongst the young protesters to elevate former Nepal Chief Justice Sushila Karki to the prime minister’s office. But some are taking issue with that.

Protesters rally behind Sushila Karki

Karki had been the top choice so far as many backed her ‘honest, fearless, and unshaken’ way of fighting corruption. During her term as Chief Justice, she had often locked horns with the administration that has now been kicked out.

"Right now, Sushila Karki's name is coming up to lead the interim government -- we are now waiting for the president to make a move," said Rakshya Bam, who was among the negotiators who spoke to the Army.

"We discussed with the army chief about the future," she told AFP. "The conversation was about how we can move forward, keeping the peace and security of the country."

Karki, 73, an academic and Nepal's first female Supreme Court chief justice, has told AFP that "experts need to come together to figure out the way forward", and that "the parliament still stands".

But there may be 2 roadblocks to this: Nepal’s Constitution prohibits a retired judge to take up government jobs outside the judiciary. But again, this is the same Constitution the protesters strive to amend. The second problem is Karki’s age. A small group of protesters said the 73-year-old may be too old to represent the interests of Gen-Z.

So, who is the alternative? The same faction of protesters that rejected Karki proposed the name of Kulman Ghising - an electrical engineer credited with solving Nepal's long-standing power crisis as the CEO of Nepal’s electricity board.

In fact, Ghising has been active through the recent protests and has highlighted the need for an interim electoral government to announce mid-term polls to steer the country out of the current crisis.

Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah, nicknamed 'Balen’, also briefly emerged as a contender to become the interim prime minister. The 35-year-old engineer and rapper also quickly became the face of the Gen-Z uproar this week.

But the possibility of him taking over fizzled out soon after Balen endorsed Sushika Karki as Nepal's interim Prime Minister.

The army has imposed a curfew in Nepal, with soldiers patrolling the largely quiet streets for a second day after the worst violence in two decades.

President Ramchandra Paudel appealed to "all parties to be confident that a solution to the problem is being sought, as soon as possible".

Protests fed into longstanding economic woes in Nepal, where more than a fifth of people aged 15-24 are unemployed, according to the World Bank, with GDP per capita just $1,447.