SOUTH KOREA'S former strongman, Park Chung-hee, did not really do elections. Yet his daughter has proven herself a master at them. Against predictions, Park Geun-hye's conservative Saenuri Party held on to the National Assembly on April 11th, with a narrow two-seat majority.

Just a month ago an overwhelming win for the main progressive opposition, the Democratic United Party (DUP), seemed probable. Concerns about job security and inadequate welfare were growing. Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak's administration had been tainted by grubby scandals, and he had become a liability. Yet South Korea's notorious electoral pendulum swung back.

Unlike Mr Lee, Ms Park is an undoubted asset. Since wresting control of the old Grand National Party (GNP) late last year, she has pushed through changes in the party's name, policies and personnel. The GNP was Mr Lee's party; Saenuri is now the vehicle for her ambitions. Presidential elections are due in December, and Mr Lee must step down.

Ms Park blunted the DUP's strategy of framing the election as a chance to judge the current government, while she beat the opposition on its own ideological turf. She promised greater welfare provision and less emphasis on economic growth above all else. People now question South Korea's high-pressure, development-led model of growth—exactly the kind of model laid down by Park Chung-hee (with much success). His daughter appears to want to be the first president of the post-bballi-bballi (hurry-hurry) era.

The DUP's failure comes in spite of an alliance with the United Progressive Party, an assortment of left-wing parties that banded together to fight this election. The two stayed out of each other's way in many constituencies, and would have formed a coalition had they between them gained the 151 seats in the National Assembly required for a majority.

Turnout, at 54.3%, was low, despite celebrities pledging to shave their heads or wear drag to get out the vote. In mid-afternoon on voting day, the polling station at Songjung elementary school in Seoul was almost empty, while the nearby doughnut shop was full of 20-somethings munching their way through the election-day holiday. An imminent satellite launch by North Korea, and rumours of a third nuclear test, failed to provoke excitement.