Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an's evasiveness on whether he will campaign across party lines has opened a rift in cooperation between the KMT and the TPP ahead of the local elections, bad news for both parties' electoral prospects.

• The KMT's Taipei city branch has stated that Chiang Wan-an will take part only in joint rallies and will not campaign individually for TPP candidates.
• Former legislator Kuo Cheng-liang criticised this as "selfish logic," saying that in Zhongzheng-Wanhua the candidate Chiang Wan-an should be helping most is the TPP's Wu Yi-hsuan.
• The real reason is that some KMT councillors face tight races and fear their votes being split.
• Kuo Cheng-liang warned that during last year's mass recall campaign Huang Kuo-chang led his party in helping the KMT, and that this attitude now will leave TPP supporters cold while giving the DPP an opening to exploit.
• Chiang Wan-an responded only that "brothers climb the mountain, each making their own effort," stressing that the goal is to maximise the combined KMT-TPP seat count and that he is willing to help wherever needed.

Outlook: Under the pressure of the final countdown to the election, the KMT and TPP may fall back on joint rallies to barely sustain their cooperation, but the grassroots understanding on vote-swapping has already come loose.