Kuomintang Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun will accompany independent Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao as she registers to run for re-election, a gesture symbolising blue-white cooperation that has nonetheless drawn discontent from the KMT's local grassroots.

• Registration for the Hsinchu mayoral and city council elections runs from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4. Kao is seeking re-election as an independent after leaving the Taiwan People's Party.
• Cheng will accompany her to register on Sept. 2, with TPP councillors and KMT council candidates also due to attend, projecting an image of blue-white unity.
• The KMT has ceded the mayoral seat in Hsinchu, declining to nominate a candidate. Blue-white cooperation is being treated as a showcase case there, even as it has collapsed in several other cities and counties.
• The friction lies in the council races: the TPP has nominated seven candidates and the KMT 18, with the two parties going head to head in a number of districts.
• Some blue-camp candidates and grassroots members complain privately that the party chair should be campaigning all-out for the KMT's own councillors, and that accompanying Kao to register risks leaving supporters unsure how to vote.

Outlook: The blue-white show of cooperation in the Hsinchu mayoral race is likely to hold through registration day, but competition in the council districts will not ease in the near term, raising the pressure on the blue camp to turn out its vote in the year-end elections.