The Democratic Progressive Party's Lin Kuo-chang will formally register on September 2 as a candidate for Yilan County magistrate, campaigning on his image as a "genuine Yilan native." The shape of the year-end magistrate race is now set.

• Lin Kuo-chang will go to the Yilan County Election Commission on the morning of September 2 to register, and DPP candidates from across the county will form a "Yilan Team" to campaign together.
• Classmates from his elementary, junior high and senior high school years, along with relatives and friends, have been invited to the registration event, underscoring his image as a local son who grew up in the area and has long worked in legal aid.
• His platform centers on being a "magistrate for all," covering industrial transformation, culture, environmental protection, transport and social welfare.
• The Kuomintang's Wu Tsung-hsien registered a day earlier, on September 1, accompanied by KMT county council speaker Chang Sheng-te and Taiwan People's Party Yilan chapter chair Chen Wan-hui, in effect announcing blue-white cooperation.

Outlook: The Yilan magistrate race is shaping up as a one-on-one contest between the green camp and a combined blue-white slate, with both sides set to step up efforts to mobilize grassroots support.