With Taiwan's 2026 nine-in-one elections drawing closer, rumours of vote-buying in Changhua have resurfaced — bad news for voters and for the integrity of local politics.

• Shih Tung-wen, former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taichung, said that when he worked years ago for a Kuomintang local faction in Changhua, he personally saw politicians preparing large sums of cash, stating outright that it was to be used to buy votes.
• Changhua's record of electoral bribery cuts across party lines: members of the Kuomintang, the Democratic Progressive Party and independents alike have been convicted or had their elections annulled, and the DPP was fined under joint-liability rules over vote-buying by a candidate from its own ranks.
• As the campaign enters the registration phase, the latest polling in Keelung shows the gap between incumbent mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang and council speaker Tung Tzu-wei narrowing to a near dead heat.
• Changhua, Chiayi and Yilan are seen as leaning toward the Green camp, while the race for New Taipei mayor has become the most closely watched contest of this election.
• In Taipei, Chiang Wan-an's expansion of the fresh milk subsidy for schoolchildren has been criticised by the Green camp as a rehash of an old idea, while DPP candidate Puma Shen has called on him to hold a debate.

Outlook: With less than three months to go until polling day, the race is set to intensify, and investigations into vote-buying along with the flow of money through local factions are expected to become central lines of attack and defence in the campaign.