Taiwan's 2026 local election registration has closed, setting up a quiet blue-green duel for Tainan mayor and a crowded scramble for council seats.

• Four people registered for Tainan mayor, led by the DPP's Chen Ting-fei and the KMT's Hsieh Lung-chieh, plus two minor candidates.
• The two front-runners are barely attacking each other so far, and the race feels unusually low-key.
• 88 candidates are chasing 57 council seats across 13 districts, with the DPP fielding the most and 27 running as independents.
• Two districts are jammed: Yongkang has 12 people fighting for 7 seats, including a KMT lineup of four who will eat into each other's votes, and the Central-West and North district has 11 chasing 6.
• Several sitting councillors are handing their seats to their own children, and an incumbent Indigenous councillor unexpectedly dropped out.

Outlook: Expect the mayoral race to stay a two-party contest while the council fight gets messy, with vote-splitting inside the KMT the main risk to watch.