The Taipei mayoral race has spilled into campuses early, after a National Chengchi University (NCCU) freshman chat group changed its background image to one of Democratic Progressive Party candidate Puma Shen, prompting the pan-blue camp to accuse the party of treating campuses as a cash machine.

• The administrator of an unofficial NCCU freshman chat group changed the group background to a Puma Shen campaign image, urging students to pay attention to the year-end elections.
• Chiang Wan-an kept a low profile, saying students have always held their own positions and that rational communication and discussion is enough.
• Kuomintang Taipei City councillor Liu Tsai-wei was sharply critical, saying the administrator had used a shared platform for private ends and engaged in one-way brainwashing, in violation of the DPP's own call for "parties, government and military to get out of campuses."
• The controversy also extends to promotional copy describing Wenshan District as a "food desert" and a peripheral part of Taipei, which critics said insulted the area in pursuit of votes.
• Puma Shen later said the platforms of both candidates could be posted together and that the student association could hold a debate, which the pan-blue camp saw as having it both ways.

Outlook: With the countdown to the nine-in-one elections under way, campus mobilisation and the fight for young voters will only intensify, and similar controversies are expected to recur.