* After the mayoral elections, a number of presidential aspirants--from both the ruling DPP and the Kuomintang (KMT)--have come forward and expressed intentions to run in 2020. The field is particularly tight for the KMT since it had just registered an impressive victory in the islandwide contest on 11/24.
* Besides KMT Chair Wu Den-yih, the outgoing New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu and former Legislative Yuan (LY) Speaker Wang Jin-ping appear to the front runners. Chu currently leads in preliminary polls, but that can change when the field is set and the nomination mechanism is agreed to by all.
* As for the DPP, President Tsai Ing-wen seems intent on running for re-election. But that is not a certainty. Factional strife continues to handicap the ruling party, and it will likely continue until the next party chair is elected in January by the rank-and-file.
* It will probably be early summer before the nominations--for both the president and LY--are set for both major parties. At that time, Taiwan will enter another islandwide campaign until early 2020.
