The dispute over the Kuomintang's nomination for Changhua county magistrate is escalating, with the party's central leadership and incumbent magistrate Wang Hui-mei each telling their own version of events — bad news for both KMT unity and the party's prospects in Changhua.

• Wang Hui-mei teared up at one point while publicly recounting the nomination process, stressing that she had raised her concerns with the party leadership repeatedly but was not taken seriously: "Don't pin this on me."
• Party official Chen Yi-hsin responded that parts of Wang's account of a tea meeting do not match the version party chair Cheng Li-wun remembers.
• At the heart of the dispute is the central leadership's nomination of lawyer Wei Ping-cheng as its candidate — and the fact that the two sides have still not spoken face to face.
• Cheng Li-wun says she hopes to meet Wang soon and clear the air, to keep infighting from dragging down the party's overall campaign.

Outlook: If the two can meet soon, the dispute may cool for the time being; otherwise the internal rift over the Changhua nomination will keep widening.