The collapse of electoral cooperation between Taiwan's two opposition parties in Zhubei is bad news for both the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party, and an unexpected gift for the Democratic Progressive Party.

• Blue-white coordination in the Zhubei mayoral race has broken down, with each party fielding its own candidate: the TPP has nominated Chiu Chen-yuan and the KMT Wu Hsu-chih, while the DPP has also drafted a candidate to enter the contest.
• TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang has directed his criticism at Hsu Hsin-ying, the KMT's candidate for Hsinchu County magistrate, saying she failed to keep her word; those pushing back argue that she has no authority to decide nominations, and that cooperation between the parties is a party-to-party negotiation.
• The supposed understanding that "Hsinchu County goes to Hsu Hsin-ying and Zhubei goes to the TPP" was never put in writing, which is precisely why responsibility is now so hard to pin down.
• Analysts believe the KMT had a chance to win both Hsinchu County and Zhubei, but that the falling-out could now cost it both — the equivalent of playing a strong hand badly.
• The fallout from the breakdown is already spreading: there are concerns it will affect other counties and cities. In New Taipei, the KMT and TPP still say their cooperation is unchanged, while in Taichung the two have made a deliberate show of unity. Ko Wen-je has also cautioned that supporters' sentiments cannot simply be turned around on command.

Outlook: With less than three months to go before the year-end elections, whether the KMT and TPP can stop the bleeding and prevent the Zhubei effect from spreading to other constituencies will shape the electoral landscape over the next two years.