Taiwan's Yilan County has seen the first case of candidates being intimidated into withdrawing from this year's year-end local elections — bad news for the integrity of local campaigning, though prosecutors' swift handling of the case is a positive sign.

• A temple committee chairman surnamed Tsai in Yilan City is accused of breaking into the residences of three candidates, pressing them to withdraw from the race and to take down their campaign billboards.
• He is alleged to have been acting to clear the way for a particular candidate, telling his targets they had "too many votes" and barring them from entering the contest.
• None of the three gave in; all completed their registrations, and members of the public reported the incidents.
• Police carried out a search under warrant and detained him. Prosecutors determined he was suspected of obstructing another person's campaign in violation of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, and released him on NT$100,000 bail with a ban on contacting the victims and witnesses.

Outlook: Ahead of the year-end elections, prosecutors have signalled zero tolerance for organised-crime involvement in the polls, and further vote-buying and anti-intimidation cases of this kind are expected to surface.