The race for Kaohsiung mayor has reached fever pitch, with the pan-blue and pan-green camps erupting into a fierce war of words over a poll showing a "gap of less than 2%."

• President and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Lai Ching-te travelled south to Kaohsiung to campaign for candidate Lai Jui-lung, accusing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of using disinformation and fake polls to interfere in the year-end election.
• Lai Ching-te said the CCP was spreading rumours such as "Lai Jui-lung cannot hold the situation together," and questioned that "a poll showing the two candidates less than 1% apart must be fake."
• Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Ko Chih-en sharply criticised this as smearing an opponent as pro-China the moment the poll narrows, retorting, "If you have evidence, prosecute; if you don't, shut up."
• Lai Jui-lung fired back, demanding that Ko Chih-en explain why online troll armies in the Middle East and Africa were backing her, and accusing her of harming Kaohsiung's interests during her term as an at-large legislator.
• The latest poll shows the two candidates only about 1.6 percentage points apart, within the margin of error, pointing to a tight race.

Outlook: With about a hundred days left until the vote, both sides will keep attacking each other by playing the "cross-strait card." The DPP plans to hold large-scale rallies starting in October, with Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te possibly campaigning in person.