The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) established a task force Wednesday to manage the nomination of candidates for the special municipality elections that will be held at the end of this year, party spokesman Su Jun-pin said. At a weekly meeting of its policy-making Central Standing Committee, the KMT approved the lineup of the task force, which includes six party vice chairmen, the secretaries general of the party, the Cabinet and the Presidential Office, as well as two other top party officials. The elections in the five special municipalities -- Taipei City and four others that will be created by upgrading Taipei County and merging the cities and counties of Kaohsiung, Taichung and Tainan, respectively -- are seen as a critical prelude to the 2012 presidential election. The 11-member task force will be responsible for picking the candidates for mayoral posts and council seats in the five municipalities. In choosing its mayoral candidates, the KMT has decided to adopt a 'coordination and recruitment process, ' with the popularity of the aspirants in public polls serving as a decisive reference. 