The race for New Taipei mayor has turned to negative campaigning early, which is bad news for both leading candidates and for voters.

• The campaign office of Kuomintang candidate Lee Ssu-chuan has accused the camp of his Democratic Progressive Party rival, Su Chiao-hui, of deliberately editing and distorting his remarks.
• At issue is Lee's reference to a population of "nearly ten million" when discussing cooperation among Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan, which the rival camp rendered as "thirty million."
• Lee's team said this is the second such incident in a short period, following an earlier case in which a legislator applied remarks he made about the 2020 Kaohsiung by-election to the New Taipei race.
• The team countered that even his accent has been made an issue, saying this is no longer normal debate over policy.

Outlook: Both sides are likely to keep up the war of words in the near term, with policy debate pushed back.