Taiwan's local election registration closed with a crowded field in Taipei and growing friction between the two opposition parties, a bad sign for their hoped-for alliance.

• Taipei's mayoral race has six candidates: sitting KMT mayor Chiang Wan-an, DPP lawmaker Puma Shen, and four minor-party or independent challengers.
• Chiang is seeking a second term and says he will opt into televised debates; 98 people registered for Taipei city council seats.
• The KMT–TPP pact in Hsinchu County collapsed after months of talks, with each side blaming the other for going back on its word.
• TPP leader Huang Kuo-chang denies his party is opening a second front against the KMT in Changhua, but the cooperation looks shaky.
• Chiang is also under fire over his son winning a city-funded student exchange spot, a conflict-of-interest row he tried to defuse by giving up the money.

Outlook: The nationwide local elections land on November 28, with 13 of 22 city and county chiefs term-limited out, so the KMT–TPP feud will shape who wins many of those open seats.