Taiwan's Yilan county election fight has turned nasty, with a spat over budget cuts and disability groups that helps neither side while flood victims wait for help in the south.

• The DPP attacked KMT Yilan county candidate Wu Tsung-hsien for cutting the presidential office's discretionary budget, saying it hurt disadvantaged groups.
• Wu's campaign called it a political stunt that uses disability groups as a weapon, and pointed to flooding in southern Taiwan as the real priority.
• The counterattack shifts blame to the central government: the law already requires public agencies to buy 10% of goods and services from sheltered workshops and disability groups.
• Roughly 4 in 10 of those required purchases never happen, leaving 700 million to 1 billion NT dollars that should reach disability groups unspent.
• Wu's camp says that if elected he would tighten county rules with rewards and penalties to force agencies to actually buy from these groups.

Outlook: Expect both parties to keep using disability and disaster relief as campaign material as Taiwan's local elections approach.