The Democratic Progressive Party has launched an offensive against Kuomintang Chair Cheng Li-wun, saying she is clearly lagging behind on coordinating local election nominations — bad news for the Blue camp's electoral prospects.

• With the nine-in-one elections counting down, the KMT has failed to settle on its county and city mayoral candidates in Hsinchu County, Zhubei, Changhua and elsewhere, while friction within the party and with the Taiwan People's Party continues.
• The DPP points to four gaps: the nomination system, the calibre of the candidates, campaign-support deployment, and governing record, saying the KMT is run by personalities rather than institutions, which has caused splits.
• The DPP stresses that this year's nominations were laid out earlier than in previous years, with Lai Ching-te personally overseeing the effort and a clear division of labour in the central campaign-support strategy.
• The Green camp counters that the KMT has obstructed governance in the Legislative Yuan and so struggles to win public trust, and that many of its candidates come from political families or entrenched local factions.
• There is also a warning that if the Blue camp's electoral outlook worsens, it may turn to China for support, and that foreign interference in the elections must be strictly guarded against.

Outlook: Whether the coordination gap can be repaired before polling day will determine whether the KMT sees split voting in several key counties and cities.