Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an has agreed to at least one televised debate with the Democratic Progressive Party challenger Puma Shen before Taiwan’s local elections on 28 November.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an has agreed to take part in at least one televised debate with his challenger, the Democratic Progressive Party legislator Puma Shen, ahead of Taiwan’s local elections on 28 November 2026, according to Focus Taiwan and the Taipei Times. Chiang said the debate was in line with the usual practice in Taipei mayoral races.
The two campaigns agreed on Monday, 12 October, that the broadcasters TVBS and SET TV will jointly host the first debate, according to Focus Taiwan. A second debate would be hosted by the Liberty Times, CTV, TTV, FTV, CTS and Mirror TV, the media groups that invited all Taipei mayoral candidates to take part, according to the Taipei Times. Focus Taiwan lists the sixth outlet as Mnews, while the Taipei Times names Mirror TV, so the names differ between the reports.
Shen proposed three possible dates for the debate: 24 October, 31 October and 7 November, and called on Chiang’s campaign to confirm his availability. Chiang said he was open to a second and possibly a third debate once the date of the first had been set, and Shen said in a radio interview that “the more debates, the better”. No date has been confirmed in the reports reviewed.
The format of the first debate has been outlined. It will include a segment in which the candidates respond to each other’s opening statements and a segment of questions from moderators, according to Focus Taiwan. The sources reviewed do not give the length of the debate or the number of topics.
A policy dispute has already emerged. Focus Taiwan reported on 6 October that Shen and Chiang were open to debating drug policy, and the Taipei Times headline of 5 October said the mayoral candidates were bickering over drug policy. The articles were not reviewed in full, so the content of the exchange is not given.
The campaign has started in earnest. Shen held his first campaign motorcade on the weekend of 10 and 11 October, and Chiang urged coordination on the debate, according to Focus Taiwan and the Taipei Times. Major party leaders have also rallied across Taiwan in support of local election candidates, according to a Focus Taiwan headline of 4 October.
The election takes place on 28 November, which is 44 days after 15 October, a count that is Delima News’ own. The first possible debate, on 24 October, would be 35 days before the vote, and the last proposed date, 7 November, would be 21 days before it.
All three of Shen’s proposed dates fall on Saturdays, as does the election day itself, a pattern that Delima News has noticed from the calendar: 24 October, 31 October, 7 November and 28 November 2026 are all Saturdays. The reports do not say whether the broadcasters prefer evening times or weekends, so the weekday is not an indication of the likely date.
The sources reviewed do not give opinion polls for the Taipei race, so Delima News does not say who is ahead.
Delima News will report the date of the first debate once the two campaigns confirm it.
Image: Taipei City Hall (file photo). Photo: 4300streetcar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
