Kaohsiung mayor-elect Han Kuo-yu is set to take office in late December. The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) politician won 54% of the vote in last month’s local elections. Han’s resounding victory dealt a heavy blow to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as it ended the DPP’s dominance in the southern city for 20 years.

When the KMT fielded Han to represent the party in May, few outside of the party had heard of him. The number of people who had any hopes for his victory was probably even fewer, even within  the KMT. It was a race that one analyst called “mission impossible.”