With Taiwan's year-end local elections entering the final stretch, the four major battlegrounds of Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung are heating up simultaneously, and the contest between the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party is turning fiercer.

• DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen criticised Chiang Wan-an for failing to reflect on or admit his mistakes, saying he has suppressed disputes over city administration in order to position himself for the presidential race.
• Shen singled out the mayor for handing out red envelopes while Neihu was flooded, the city government's cut in rubbish bins from more than 2,000 to 800, and the failure to report a child abuse case in time, criticising a culture of "smoothing things over" at city hall.
• Taipei City Council Speaker Tai Hsi-chin hit back, saying Taipei needs Chiang Wan-an and cannot change captains midstream; councillor Hung Chien-yi, meanwhile, dug up three major promises Chiang made three years ago and said none had been delivered.
• In New Taipei, Lee Si-chuan drew a rally crowd of more than 6,000 in Banqiao, where Hou Yu-ih showed up to clearly hand over the baton, and Lee upped the ante by declaring that New Taipei would have "two domes."
• The latest Kaohsiung polls put the two camps just 0.3 percentage points apart, with Ko Chih-en narrowly ahead of Lai Jui-lung; the collapse of KMT-TPP coordination is seen as having repercussions beyond Hsinchu.

Outlook: With 77 days left in the campaign, the fight over city administration in Taipei and the deadlocked polls in Kaohsiung will be the two tightest battlegrounds in the period ahead.