Negotiations between Taiwan's two opposition parties over the Zhubei mayoral race have broken down, bad news for the KMT and TPP supporters who had hoped to consolidate the opposition vote.

• The KMT's Wu Hsu-chih moved first to register his candidacy, effectively overturning claims that the two parties were still coordinating on a joint candidate.
• TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang said he raised the matter face to face with KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun and was told the situation "could not be handled." He declared his full backing for his own party's candidate, Chiu Chen-yuan, through to election day.
• Cheng Li-wun said Zhubei's local political networks and public opinion structure are distinctive, and that the two parties do indeed differ in their assessments of the candidates, but the broader direction of cooperation remains unchanged.
• Both parties still say publicly that they intend to win the year-end elections together, but in this race each is fielding its own candidate, and the vote could be split.

Outlook: Zhubei now looks likely to see a head-to-head contest between the KMT and the TPP, and coordination talks in other constituencies ahead of the year-end elections will become harder to conclude.