The first day of registration for the Changhua County magistrate election brought a surprise: the first candidate to complete registration was not a nominee of any major party, but independent county councillor Chen Chung-chia — an awkward interlude for the nomination plans of all three main parties.

• Chen arrived at the Changhua County Election Commission early in the morning to complete his registration, paying the NT$160,000 deposit and running as an independent.
• He said bluntly that he could no longer stand watching the nomination manoeuvring of the blue, green and white parties, arguing that each is concerned only with party interests and none is genuinely thinking of Changhua.
• Chen is the son of former legislators Chen Chao-jung and Yu Yueh-hsia, and has served three consecutive terms as a county councillor. He was elected on a Taiwan People's Party ticket but later left the party, which led to the dissolution of the party's council caucus.
• Fellow councillors had assumed his talk of running for magistrate was a joke, and were astonished to see him actually register.
• He acknowledged that no one around him supports his candidacy, but maintained that the people of Changhua should decide their own future.

Outlook: Registration closes on 4 September, with the Democratic Progressive Party's Chen Su-yueh, the Kuomintang's Wei Ping-cheng and independent Chiu Chien-fu all set to register in turn, potentially making the Changhua magistrate race a crowded multi-way contest.