Soon to be back in business? Photo: BBC.co.uk

A flicker of hope appeared amid the lingering gloom of uncertainty over the ensuing national election when its latest rescheduling, with the shifting of vote-casting day to December 29, and the BNP welcoming the move conditionally. Although no unequivocal declaration of the BNP's participation in the election was made, it was taken to be a positive stance of the BNP in favour of its participation in the election.
The party's belated electoral alacrity was an indication in this regard, although the detractors say that the BNP was feigning election activities to bargain and extract further concessions from the authority by putting the latter in a catch-22 situation. The party's last three pre-conditions are pointers.
So far as an ever-reconciliatory Awami League is concerned, the authority reckoned that the party would grudgingly accept the change. True to the government's expectation, the AL -- in its official reaction -- did so rather gracefully. The AL, till recently the mascot for this year's election, readily accepted the changed schedule without a fuss for it was already prepared for the election and had almost finalised its list of nominated candidate.
The ground reality at the moment and the broad picture of the authority's achievement with regard to a credible election with the participation of all political outfits -- notwithstanding the fact that the nation has been made to stand on a slippery slope risking a descent into the abyss of a constitutional crisis and political chaos -- is indeed admirable.
Yet, the nagging uncertainty persists, and a scepticism as to whether there will at all be an election refuses to go -- thanks to the utterances of the two political leaders who exchanged pleasantries with each other only days earlier at Sena Kunja in full view of those present and amid spontaneous applause. Now their parties are exchanging blistering insinuations, vitiating the pre-election atmosphere.
Sheikh Hasina has been suddenly expressing a fear of "election engineering," while Madam Zia has stiffened her posture -- demanding the fulfillment of three conditions already put forward to facilitate the BNP's poll participation. Or else, according to her demented secretary general, the party will reconsider its election participation. The Election Commission, in the meantime, clarified its position on the BNP's conditions. As it now transpires, those clarifications couldn't satisfy an apparently prepared BNP.
Intransigence, coupled with histrionics, is Madam Zia's forte in gaining whatever is required for the return of the gravy train of perks, privilege and power. By all reckonings, time is the most vital element the madam is in need of. The election is, for the moment, a secondary thing for her. Through sheer obstinacy she has gained some time, but she needs more to emerge "clean" from the sleaze smeared on her face. She knows that the people, in their habitual amnesia, do forget the bitterest of things -- more so when they are overcome by the oddities of contemporary times. That's the point of anxiety.
Both Madam Zia and Sheikh Hasina, along with their parties, suffered jolts during the last two years. Both were indicted and incarcerated, and harsh treatment was meted out to them. Such misfortune can at times induce sobriety in human beings, for whom the adverse experiences become cathartic. Madam Zia's chemistry defies such noble changes. A narcissist to the extent she cannot look much beyond herself, her family, the party and, at the best, the cronies of her halcyon days. Hence are her layers of preconditions for achieving her self-serving ends. I
It is not without reason that she is averse to RPO 93(e), although the BNP's stratagems cast a long shadow on the fate of the election, at this stage it can sabotage the election only at the cost of its own existence. Even if it may be playing a fake electioneering game, the party men are already in the field with or without the nomination. The BNP leadership will find itself helpless in stopping this inexorable tide of poll-mania.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.