With three months to go before Taiwan's 2026 local elections, the campaign atmosphere is heating up, with the collapse of KMT–TPP cooperation and a string of candidate controversies taking centre stage.

• Campaign posters for Chen Kuan-an, the Kuomintang's candidate for city councillor in Taipei's Neihu-Nangang district, were torn down. The posters carried only his résumé and the Republic of China flag, with no party slogans or emblem.
• Chen said he would not back down, stressing that respect for differing opinions is a basic tenet of democracy: "Tear one down and I'll put another one up."
• Cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party in Zhubei City, Hsinchu County, has formally broken down. Huang Kuo-chang accused the KMT of going back on its word, while Ko Wen-je asked why it is always the TPP that has to give way.
• Lee Ssu-chuan said he meets Huang Kuo-chang every month and that KMT–TPP cooperation in New Taipei City will not change; the latest polls show him trailing Su Chiao-hui by around 5 percentage points.
• The Central Election Commission approved only the referendum proposal to "abolish the nuclear-free homeland" policy, while proposals to introduce judicial caning and to earmark traffic fine revenue for dedicated use were rejected by all commissioners. In the Hsinchu baseball stadium case, former mayor Lin Chih-chien was not indicted.

Outlook: Candidate registration begins on 31 August, and whether the KMT and TPP can rebuild their alliance in counties and cities beyond Zhubei will be the biggest variable in the final three months before the vote.