DEMOCRACY...OR SOMETHING LIKE IT

Guarded by U.S. Humvees mounted with machine-guns, Baghdad City Council today chose a new mayor it is asking to return home from a glitzy Gulf emirate to a postwar city of blast walls and raw sewage.

In what American officials called a victory for democracy, Alaa al-Tamimi, a charismatic engineer who spent years in Abu Dhabi as senior adviser to the planning department, won the overwhelming majority of votes...

"We hope Baghdad will return to be the mother of the world," said Tamimi, after his selection by a panel of members of Baghdad district councils who questioned the final seven candidates for hours.

What about sewage? What about the 10,000 tonnes of garbage on the streets?..

Tamimi faces monumental challenges in Baghdad, where rebuilding a battered infrastructure and attracting investment are hampered by guerrilla bombings and kidnappings.

None of the mayoral candidates offered a clear strategy for tackling those problems.

"We need to put a system in place. We don't want it to be run by individuals. We need a scientific approach," said Tamimi, hinting at the days when Saddam's Baath party controlled a highly corrupt city hall...

The grilling underscored the difficult transition from the old Iraq into one where merit, not Baath party ties, or army or family connections, is meant to count most.

When one candidate, Omar al-Damaluji, began his opening remarks by discussing his parents' medical professions and his degrees, he was immediately shot down by a panelist.

"We have heard enough about you. We want to know how you will rebuild Baghdad." He was selected as a deputy mayor.