Unassuming bureaucrat face of Iraq's political shift

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Yousif al-Habubi, a mild-mannered bureaucrat, drives his own car around the dusty city of Kerbala and unlike most Iraqi officials goes without a pack of bodyguards in flashy suits.

The no-frills style of this veteran local administrator is a sharp contrast to his runaway success in Iraq's recent local polls. But his victory may result in less than he, and many voters, hoped if his goals to capture a top post are cut short.

"How could 38,000 votes go to waste like this? Can this be called democracy?" the independent candidate asked weeks before Kerbala's new provincial council is seated, one that appears poised to shut him out of being governor or council president.

Habubi's victory in the January 31 vote reflects the changing face of politics as sectarian bloodshed fades and Iraqis demand the services they say established powers have failed to provide.

But his subsequent sidelining by larger powers highlights the challenges facing a nation just six years into a shaky new democracy, where historical feuds and recent bloodletting threaten stability and resurgent violence is a breath away.

Habubi won 13 percent of the vote, or 37,846 ballots, more than anyone else in Shi'ite Kerbala. But because new election rules favor big parties and coalitions, the candidate running on a one-person slate was assigned just one council seat.

The two second-place slates in Kerbala, one backed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, are expected to form a bloc and divvy out top posts among themselves when the council's 27 members meet to elect a governor and council president in several weeks.

That disappoints those fed up with major religious parties that since the U.S.-led invasion thrust them into power have used sectarian quotas and backroom deals to apportion key posts.

SERVICES, JOBS, RECONSTRUCTION

Several hundred people took to the streets of Kerbala on Saturday, demanding Habubi be named governor. 'We want an honest governor who serves Iraq,' one banner read.

Habubi, speaking in his well-appointed home in central Kerbala, emphasized a need for a more technocratic government to avoid repeating Iraq's past mistakes. "Scientists, theorists, people with experience -- they must be involved," he said.

Teeming with pilgrims visiting the golden-domed Imam Hussein shrine, Kerbala like all of Iraq needs investment to meet basic needs and create jobs for youths often courted by militants.

Many Iraqis bitterly complain that there is little to show for the billions of dollars in U.S. and Iraqi money spent since 2003 to improve services and rebuild a country shattered by war.

In Kerbala, where the streets are pocked by craters and trash dances in the wind, voters were drawn to Habubi's record of delivering as a bureaucrat and his unassuming style.

Such quotidian desires were also seen as helping propel Maliki, whom many Iraqis credit for the sharp drop and violence and whose Rule of Law coalition campaigned on a law and order message, to victory in many parts of southern and central Iraq.

Habubi, who blamed parliament for designing electoral rules benefiting larger parties, hasn't ruled out forming coalitions.

Safia al-Suhail, an independent lawmaker, warned the row may make wider ripples at a delicate moment for Iraq.

"This goes against voters' intentions in Kerbala and all of Iraq ... it could lead people to abandon the political process."

(Additional reporting by Sami al-Jumaili; Editing by Giles Elgood)