The Taiwan People's Party has been hit by internal personnel turmoil ahead of the year-end local elections, and its local cooperation with the Kuomintang has broken down — bad news for the third force's electoral prospects.

• Ko Wen-je travelled south to Tainan to accompany four city council candidates and one village chief candidate as they registered; the following day, Tainan city branch executive director Chiang Pin-tsung announced his resignation.
• Ko Wen-je said the TPP holds only one incumbent council seat south of the Zhuoshui River, and went so far as to express hope that the KMT's Hsieh Lung-chieh would appear on stage in support of TPP candidates.
• Blue-white cooperation in the Zhubei mayoral race has formally collapsed, with the TPP accusing the KMT of reneging on an agreement to "concede Zhubei in exchange for not nominating a Hsinchu County magistrate candidate." Both parties are now fielding their own contenders.
• The split could spill over: some analysts believe that if the blue and white camps fail to reach an accommodation, the DPP could benefit in both Hsinchu County and Zhubei, and a TPP candidate may yet emerge in Changhua County as well.
• Speaking in Changhua, Ko Wen-je also predicted that with global capital pouring into AI, Taiwan's stock index has a chance of challenging the 50,000-point mark, but that once semiconductors run up against physical limits, Taiwan will face the test of industrial transformation.

Outlook: Ko Wen-je and KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun are expected to appear together at a registration event in Hsinchu City, and whether the blue-white alliance can stop the bleeding will shape the races in several counties and cities.