Changhua County Magistrate Wang Hui-mei publicly thanked President Lai Ching-te for advancing local infrastructure projects, angering Kuomintang supporters and bringing her rift with the party leadership into the open.

• After Lai announced that the review process for Changhua's water hardware industrial park project would be completed by the end of the year, Wang Hui-mei promptly posted her thanks on Facebook and urged the central government to speed up progress.
• The post drew hundreds of comments, with criticism clearly outweighing support; some said they regretted voting for her and told her she might as well join the Democratic Progressive Party.
• The discontent stems from the earlier dispute over the Changhua County magistrate nomination, which had already left bad blood between Wang Hui-mei and the KMT leadership.
• Others came to her defence, arguing that local infrastructure should not be a matter of blue versus green and that she was still securing resources for Changhua before leaving office.

Outlook: The fallout from the nomination dispute will continue to spread, and the divisions within the KMT may prove even harder to contain ahead of the year-end elections.