A four-term Changhua county councillor has jumped into the race for county chief as an independent, shaking up a swing county that both major parties treat as up for grabs.

• Chen Chung-chia, a councillor since 2010, registered to run for Changhua county chief with no party backing.
• He is the son of two former lawmakers — Chen Chao-jung and Yu Yueh-hsia — but says he told neither parent before signing up.
• His pitch is that the KMT, the DPP and the TPP all picked candidates to serve their own party interests rather than Changhua.
• He briefly joined the TPP to run for this job, quit in late 2023 when the party would not back him, and is now going it alone.
• He is urging voters with no preferred candidate to still turn out and spoil their ballots as a protest.

Outlook: A well-known independent splitting the field makes Changhua one of the harder local races to call in the coming election.