Candidate registration for Taiwan's year-end local elections has closed, setting up tight two-way fights in the north and a messy three-way scramble in Hualien.

• New Taipei is the marquee race: the DPP's Su Chiao-hui and the KMT's Li Si-chuan are running neck and neck in polls, with an independent joining late.
• Both camps are rolling out heavyweights — President Lai Ching-te, former President Tsai Ing-wen and Kaohsiung's Chen Chi-mai for the DPP, incumbent mayor Hou Yu-ih for the KMT.
• In Keelung, KMT incumbent Hsieh Kuo-liang still has the bigger base and the power of office, but the DPP's Tung Tzu-wei is closing the gap fast.
• Yilan pits the DPP's Lin Kuo-chang against Wu Tsung-hsien, backed by a KMT-TPP deal, in another dead heat.
• Hualien splits the blue vote three ways, as three candidates with KMT roots — Yu Shu-chen, Chang Chun and Wei Chia-hsien — all run.

Outlook: New Taipei and Keelung look like coin flips, while the blue camp's split in Hualien is its biggest self-inflicted risk heading into the vote.