Will a president's daughter be South Korea's next leader?

In the elections across Asia from Japan to Sri Lanka this year, perhaps the most intriguing candidate is Park Geun-hye, who is seeking to be the first woman elected president of South Korea.

Park, 60, is part of an elite sisterhood of Asian women who got their start in politics as the daughter or widow of well-known men. Most of them were educated in Western universities. Among them: the late Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and Sonia Gandhi in India; Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed in Bangladesh; and, most likely the best known, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. In Indonesia is Megawati Sukarnoputri; the late Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the Philippines; and Makiko Tanaka in Japan.

A rare exception is Tsai Ing-wen, a scholar and government official who ran for the presidency of Taiwan in January but was defeated by the incumbent, Ma Ying-jeou. Tsai appears to have had no prominent family connections.

In Seoul, Park is the daughter of the late president Park Chung-hee, which has been at once a plus and a minus in her political career. The former president is widely credited for having driven South Korea onto the path of economic progress. At the same time, he is reviled for his sometimes brutal political repression.

As the candidate for the New Frontier Party, Park's main opponent is Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party. Most Korean observers say the race is too close to call, although Moon may have some advantage in a society dominated by men. The vote takes place on December 19.

Park got an early start in public diplomacy as a young woman in 1974 after her mother, Yuk Young-soo, was killed by an assassin as she listened to president Park give an independence day address. Ms Park soon became her father's official hostess and, by all accounts, conducted herself with the same grace as her mother.