Taiwan's opposition DPP has locked in its full slate for the Taichung city council election, framing the race as a referendum on Mayor Lu Shiow-yen's record — bad news for the ruling KMT's hold on the city.

• Tsai Chi-chang, the DPP's legislative caucus leader, brought 15 candidates from the party's New Tide faction to register at once.
• Other DPP factions have already signed up their own candidates, so the party's full council lineup is set.
• The pitch is that a strong council bloc would back Ho Hsin-chun, the DPP's candidate for Taichung mayor, who registers next.
• Attacks center on delays to Taichung's metro lines, a landfill in Dali now called Taiwan's biggest garbage mountain, and rising child abuse and crime cases.
• The city government did not respond to the criticism.

Outlook: Expect the metro delays and the landfill to become the defining issues of the Taichung mayoral fight.