Negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party on cooperating in the mayoral election in Zhubei, Hsinchu County, have broken down, a setback for the two parties' plans to jointly challenge the ruling party.

• Wu Hsu-chih, nominated by the Kuomintang, moved first to collect his registration papers, effectively confirming the party's candidate unilaterally.
• Taiwan People's Party chairman Huang Kuo-chang said he had recently spoken face to face with Kuomintang chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, only to be told the matter could not be resolved, which he said he deeply regretted.
• The Taiwan People's Party has declared its full backing for its own candidate, Chiu Chen-yuan, to stay in the race to the end, setting up a head-to-head contest between the two parties in Zhubei.
• Cheng Li-wun said the situation in Zhubei is unusual, requiring careful consideration of local groundwork and the structure of public opinion, and that while the two sides do have different assessments of the candidates, the original intent to cooperate has not changed.
• Both parties stressed that their shared goal of winning the year-end elections remains unchanged and that they will continue talks on their cooperative relationship.

Outlook: Zhubei is likely to see a three-way race with the blue and white camps each fielding a candidate, and coordination between the two in other districts will become harder to negotiate.