The popular mood is one of relief that the unnecessary and ruinous shutdown is over, but despair that the country is headed for another major showdown. The average citizen watches aghast as national leaders claw at each other for the prime ministership while the country suffers and is mired deeper in crisis.

The Himalmedia Public Opinion Poll this month, as well as sound bites on the street this week, prove that the people are fed up with this deadlock. They are not at all reassured by the names being thrown up as alternatives to Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The national mood is for change to a dynamic, youthful, visionary leadership that can take the people towards prosperity and justice. Unfortunately, every formula being put forward as an alternative to the Maoists is made up of the same tired, discredited faces from the past. Most people are now so worn out, opposition to the Maoists for having punished the people with the strike is now being replaced by resentment against the prime minister for refusing to step down.

The real dilemma here is that the Maoists, who most people think are the ones who can and should set things right, are untrustworthy bullies. The Maoist candidate for prime ministership himself is someone who openly threatens civil society leaders with harm, and promises fire and brimstone against a business community that his party has already bled dry. His ominous threat to the media ("we are keeping a close watch on what you are writing") at the rally on Sunday was followed through the very next day by his cadre with selective and systematic attacks on reporters covering the protests near Singh Darbar. There have been threats and intimidation against businesses, media and professionals who supported and took part in the citizens' protest last Friday.

Chairman Dahal is his own worst enemy. The people are still willing to give him a chance if he starts behaving like a statesman, heals rather than hurts, and unites rather than plays his rivals against each other. Yet we see a leader increasingly trapped by his own rhetoric and under pressure from within his own party for the cult of personality he has unleashed.

There is wide agreement among all the parties that the first order of business is that they should quickly and collectively move to extend the mandate of the CA to avoid a dangerous constitutional void on 28 May. No leader we know is against consensus and the setting up of a national government. As far as we can make out, the disagreement is only over procedure, sequencing and who should lead the government.

But the heart of the matter is that the Maoists keep reminding us every day through words and action that they are not a party to be trusted. They seem unwilling or incapable of giving up their self-destructive habit of using threats, intimidation and extortion to get their way.