Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an is leaning toward not appearing on stage alone for Taiwan People's Party city council candidates — a negative signal for blue-white cooperation, and an opportunity for the Democratic Progressive Party.

• The Kuomintang is allocating votes across all districts in the Taipei City Council election for the first time, and the internal consensus is that Chiang Wan-an will attend only joint rallies rather than campaigning for individual candidates.
• Taipei City KMT chapter chairman Tai Hsi-chin said bluntly that such appearances should be "as few as possible, and as far from election day as possible," in order to reduce the vote-splitting pressure on incumbent blue-camp councillors.
• Some within the TPP have complained that the arrangement feels like "charity," while blue-camp councillors acknowledge it could leave centrist voters with the impression that the KMT is being petty.
• Chiang Wan-an responded that the goal is to "maximise blue-white seats," while DPP candidate Puma Shen called it the KMT's internal affair and said he was going all out to win every seat.

Outlook: With less than 100 days until the vote, the sincerity of blue-white cooperation in Taipei will remain under scrutiny, and whether white-camp votes shift to the DPP is the key variable.