The local elections are coming up in November and the DPP is hoping to win back the seats it lost during the last 9-in-1 elections that give the KMT the most seats in the City Legislature.

After the last election the KMT rose to 31 seats, the most for any of the parties represented in the Legislature. The DPP is still currently in 2nd with 25. They are followed by the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) with 2 seats. The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), New Power Party, and the People First Party both hold one seat. 4 of the remaining seats are filed by independents and one seat is empty.

The DPP seems like it may use this election, not only to get its own people in power, but to do some coalition building as well.  Chao Tien-Lin (趙天麟), the chairman of the Kaohsiung City DPP, has stated that he will be looking to work with other like minded parties in Kaohsiung. This could be a good strategy for the DPP.

First, it could help the party conserve resources for their own elections across Kaohsiung. It could also help to build back solidarity and good will after some parties broke with the DPP on some of the various referendum topics at the end of last year. Likewise there may be some third parties that will mostly vote with the DPP, but could get votes that the DPP couldn’t.

Exactly what happens with local elections will likely be more clear as elections draw closer and more candidates are announced. However, with Mayor Chen Chi-mai’s popularity and the dissatisfaction left behind for the KMT by Han Kuo-yu, the pan-Green candidates in Kaohsiung likely have a good chance at raising the numbers of seats they control.