With three months left until the year-end nine-in-one elections, a rift has emerged within the Kuomintang (KMT) camp on the Taipei City Council over suspicions that Speaker Tai Hsi-chin is "cosying up to the White camp to hold on to the speakership," working against the KMT's campaign strategy.

• Word has spread that Speaker Tai Hsi-chin is "seriously considering" stepping down as head of the party's local branch, a move read as leaning toward the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) in order to keep his seat as speaker, which has angered KMT councillors.
• KMT councillors worry that "Blue-White cooperation" could instead squeeze the KMT's number of seats, hurting the party in the year-end elections for speaker and deputy speaker, with Zhongzheng-Wanhua and Songshan-Xinyi seen as "danger zones."
• Facing a strong push from White camp candidates who could siphon off centrist, lean-Blue votes, KMT councillors can only raise the banner of "true Blue" to shore up their base.
• Chiang Wan-an has brushed the matter aside on the surface by saying he is "focused on city administration," but has in fact already been organising personal "support groups" across the districts to lay the groundwork for re-election, and plans to campaign intensively for councillors starting in September.
• The TPP, for its part, is running a joint campaign, with Huang Kuo-chang and Ko Wen-je as its "two suns" rallying support, in a hard push for its goal of "one seat in each of the six Taipei districts."

Outlook: The campaign is likely to heat up as early as late September or early October, and the contest between the Blue and White camps over seats and the speakership will continue to shape Taipei's electoral landscape.