polls for almost three years. France 2002 presidential election: far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, of the National Front, finished as the runner-up over prime minister Lionel Jospin and thus progressed to a run-off against incumbent president Jacques Chirac. Chirac would ultimately defeat Le Pen in a historic landslide. The Gambia 2016 presidential election: dictatorial president Yahya Jammeh, in power since 1994, unexpectedly lost the election to opposition candidate Adama Barrow. Malaysia 2018 House of Representatives election: the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition won an absolute majority of 113 seats in the Dewan Rakyat (lower house of parliament), thus ending the 61-year rule of the Barisan Nasional coalition and bringing about the first change of a ruling party in the country's history. Serbia 2012 presidential election: Tomislav Nikolić of the Serbian Progressive Party defeated Boris Tadić of the Democratic Party, who had recently resigned as the president of Serbia in order to trigger an early election. Nikolić had previously lost to Tadić in two elections. Sri Lanka 2015 presidential election: two-term strongman president Mahinda Rajapaksa, of the United People's Freedom Alliance, lost his bid for a third term to opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena. United Kingdom 1945 United Kingdom general election: The universal expectation that successful wartime leader Winston Churchill would win the first poll after the defeat of Germany in World War II, was shattered by the overwhelming landslide victory of the Labour Party, raising Clement Attlee to the post of Prime Minister. 1992 United Kingdom general election: the ruling Conservative Party won a fourth consecutive absolute majority in the House of Commons, despite opinion polls having predicted a hung parliament or a narrow absolute majority for the opposition Labour Party. 2015 United Kingdom general election: the Conservative Party, for the previous five years part of a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, went on to win a majority in the House of Commons despite most polls predicting a hung parliament. 2017 United Kingdom general election: the ruling Conservative Party lost its absolute majority in the House of Commons, despite opinion polls predicting that they would keep it or even increase it. United States 1948 presidential election: Harry Truman was reelected as the president of the United States over New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, who had been leading in opinion polls. 2010 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts: As a result of incumbent senator Ted Kennedy's death on August 25,