Cracks have appeared in the Kuomintang's efforts to consolidate its campaign in Changhua County, bad news for both the party leadership and its nominee, Wei Ping-cheng.

• Incumbent Changhua County Magistrate Wang Hui-mei has now missed four events at which party chairwoman Cheng Li-wun appeared in support of Wei Ping-cheng, and did not show up even when the Central Standing Committee relocated its meeting to Changhua.
• Wang Hui-mei has been in politics for more than 30 years and has won every election she has contested, making her the strongest campaigner the KMT has in Changhua. Her refusal to declare her support effectively strips Wei Ping-cheng of his biggest source of local backing.
• The friction stems from the nomination process: two members of the county government team wanted to seek the nomination, and Wang Hui-mei had made recommendations to the party's central leadership, but in the end she learned from news reports while on an overseas visit that the party had nominated lawyer Wei Ping-cheng.
• In a Facebook post, Wang Hui-mei said only that she would fulfil her duties as a party member and give her all through the final 127 days of her term, without a single word of support for the campaign.
• Cheng Li-wun attended the opening of the campaign office of city council candidate Lai Yi-jen in Taipei today. After her remarks she declined to respond to any of the reporters' follow-up questions, smiling as she got into her car and left.

Outlook: If the party's central leadership cannot get Wang Hui-mei to publicly fall back into line, the race for Changhua County magistrate may well be fought amid infighting within the KMT.