2008 Leestrom mayoral election

The 2008 Leestrom mayoral election was held on 18 June 2008 simultaneously with the Leestrom City Council elections. The incumbent mayor Thomas Lloyd was defeated by newcomer Saber Pardón in an upset victory. The first round of the election was concurrent with the 2008 Leestrom City Council election.

Background
The election was considered to be a likely victory for Lloyd in early projections as he was already serving his second term with relatively high popularity with ratings consistently between 45-55% due to popular policies such as maintaining high spending on welfare and improving water access to many parts of the city. However, his tenure still had major criticisms notably regarding the high level of debt the city generated in the process of high spending, and the welfare system although maintained lacked improvement with many citizens criticising Lloyd for the lack of comprehensiveness.

Saber was a relatively novel figure in Leestrom, as although he was a member of the city council he was still not an extremely popular figure, but he did have the advantage of being able to connect with initiating a grassroots movement across the city's districts and revitalised support for centrist and liberal candidates. He would go on to engage in populist tactics initiating rallies and mobilising a social media campaign.

He would also outperform Lloyd in debates with many voters acknowledging his articulation. Saber also consistently pointed out the lack of improvement on the city's systems during Lloyd's tenure once saying "you've done a decent job as mayor, but at the end of the day all you're doing is maintaining systems, while I would not just improve them but create new systems to improve this city".

Campaign
Lloyd

Lloyd's campaign primarily centred around his accomplishments during his tenure as mayor, and ran on a platform of welfare and improving access to public services. In the final weeks of the campaign he focused on his status of being an experienced politician and labelled Saber as a newcomer. This strategy was considered as being largely ineffective as Saber was experienced in working in the city council and other political institutions.

Saber

Saber's platform consisted of promising to make the welfare system in the city more comprehensive, and his signature policy which was the "Leestrom City Sharing Project" which would increase the city's presence in the province and bolster the city's economy by increasing trade and cooperation. He also labelled Lloyd's mayoralty as being a lame duck period with a lack of change. His rallies were also said to have increased turnout in liberal voters.

Results
The first round resulted in Lloyd receiving 45.17% of the vote with Saber obtaining 41.72%. In the second round many news organisations predicted Lloyd to win mainly because many assumed that the left-wing bloc would unite with Lloyd. Initial sample counts had Lloyd have up to a 53% lead, however, gradually Saber would catch up and overtake Lloyd.

Saber would go on to win with a narrow 51.41% in a major upset and was sworn in as mayor on July 1, becoming the first mayor belonging to the Korean minority in Leestrom, and the first mayor to not be white Dutch or English. He would be re-elected in the 2012 Leestrom mayoral election.