Registration for Taiwan's year-end local elections is heating up, and with blue-white cooperation taking shape in Miaoli, the development is good news for the Kuomintang and unfavourable for the Democratic Progressive Party.

• Miaoli County Magistrate Chung Tung-chin registered as the Kuomintang's candidate in his bid for re-election, with legislators, the county council speaker, a former magistrate and several local township chiefs appearing to lend their support.
• Deputy Magistrate Lai Hsiang-ling, in her capacity as chair of the Taiwan People's Party's Miaoli County branch, publicly declared "blue and white united, vote for Chung Tung-chin," setting a target of breaking 70 percent of the vote.
• Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an has likewise stressed "maximising blue-white seats," but former Hsinchu County Magistrate Fan Chen-tsung berated party chair Cheng Li-wun to her face over "blue-white disunity," showing that the cooperation has not been smooth.
• Chiang Wan-an's eldest son holds US citizenship yet applied for a city government-funded exchange programme, and the controversy over privilege and conflict of interest continues to burn, with the blue and green camps accusing each other of double standards.
• The Executive Yuan on the same day approved the largest supplementary budget in history, exceeding NT$600 billion, with a capital injection for CPC Corporation and procurement of defence drones and munitions accounting for the bulk of it.

Outlook: With just over eighty days until the vote, whether the blue and white camps can genuinely integrate across the various counties and cities will be the key variable in the race.