Blue-white cooperation in the Taipei City Council is fracturing within the parties — bad news for the Kuomintang's electoral prospects, and not necessarily good for the Taiwan People's Party either.

• Tai Hsi-chin is simultaneously council speaker, a candidate for city councillor, and chair of the KMT's Taipei branch, giving him control over nominations and campaign support — drawing criticism that he is both player and referee.
• The party branch spends nearly NT$2 million a month, while party headquarters covers the salaries of only three staff members; the rest must be raised by the chair himself, a burden that grows heavier in an election year.
• Whether Chiang Wan-an should appear at rallies for TPP candidates has drawn pushback from KMT councillors for several months, because in multi-member districts helping the other side means cutting into your own.
• Reports that the KMT might hand the deputy speakership to the TPP if it fails to win a majority have deepened the resistance, with figures inside the party arguing that the TPP's councillors are too inexperienced.
• The two parties have each made their own nominations, so at the councillor level it amounts to climbing the same mountain by separate paths; the KMT has decided to switch to a city-wide vote-allocation strategy.

Outlook: Chiang Wan-an will attend only joint TPP rallies and will not appear at solo events for individual candidates. Blue-white cooperation at the councillor level now exists in name only.