The race for Miaoli City mayor has begun early, with incumbent Kuomintang mayor Yu Wen-chung accused of allowing a single corporate group to monopolise city office tenders over a long period. The allegations are damaging for him, but he denies any wrongdoing.

• Democratic Progressive Party candidate and legislator Lin Yueh-chin says three companies under the Taichung-based Normandy Group won 23 tenders from the Miaoli City Office within 28 months, worth roughly NT$28 million in total.
• The three companies appear to be independent of one another but are in fact registered at the same address, and none had ever won a Miaoli City Office contract before Yu Wen-chung took office.
• Most of the contracts involve marketing, tourism, recreation and cultural events. Sixteen of them went through an internal selection process, and in more than ten cases the budgeted amount and the awarded amount were identical, raising questions as to whether the city office negotiated on price at all.
• Yu Wen-chung responded that all procurement was put out to open tender in accordance with the Government Procurement Act, that the process was open and transparent, and that he welcomes outside scrutiny.
• He countered that Lin Yueh-chin had not dared speak up over the "green cronies" controversies surrounding green energy and solar power and military drone tenders, yet was smearing Miaoli for electoral gain.

Outlook: The mutual accusations look set to continue through to the Miaoli mayoral election, with the next focus being whether the details of the tenders and the selection criteria will be made public.