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Experience 1, charisma 0

By the standards of any democracy, let alone the rough and tumble of British politics, it was an unusual way to pick a leader. Rather than leave the choice to its 30 Members of Parliament, the new Social Democratic Party mailed ballots to each of the 62,372 people who had paid $19 a year to join the party. To the surprise of pundits and pollsters, the final tally last week handed victory not to the underdog who had pressed for the ballot by mail but to the elder statesman who would no doubt have been the first choice of M.P.s in a smoke-filled room. The winner was Roy Jenkins, 61, a venerable politician who served in several Labor Cabinets and as president of the Brussels-based European Commission before helping form the new centrist party last year.

There was little ideological difference between Jenkins and his rival, former La bor Foreign Secretary David Owen, 44.

Ultimately, the race came down to a choice between the old guard and the young challenger, the center and the slightly left-of-center, experience and charisma. Jenkins won comfortably with 56% of the vote. He will become Prime Minister if the Social Democrats and their Liberal allies win the national election that is expected to take place late next year.

Owen's star rose during the Falklands war, when he patriotically backed the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher -- but only up to a point. Alluding frequently to his experience as Foreign Secretary, he rarely failed to mention that he had averted an Argentine threat to invade the Falklands in 1977.

Jenkins, by contrast, rarely spoke up. According to a recent poll, the public considered Owen intelligent, businesslike, fair and honest. Jenkins was seen as being smug, arrogant and out of touch.

One reason the forecasts proved wrong is that, as Jenkins put it, "the people have turned back from the Falklands to unemployment and the economy." On that turf, Jenkins' experience as Chancel lor of the Exchequer from 1967 to 1970 helped him a good deal. Jenkins, however, now faces an uphill battle. The Social Democrats and the Liberal Party reached 44% in the polls last November, ahead of both Thatcher's Conservatives (27%) and the Labor opposition (27%). But in the wake of the Falklands victory, the Tories have become the favorites, with 45%; the Social Democrats, with 23%, have fallen to third place.

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