Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 11, and campaigning is in full swing with the Kuomintang challenging the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of President Tsai Ing-wen, who is currently far ahead in the polls.
The device, planted outside the entrance to a Kuomintang office in Tainan city, contain wires, liquid and powder, the report said.
Police tracked a suspect, a man with the family name Wu, to the neighboring city of Kaohsiung and after a lengthy stand-off stormed a building and shot the man, who was taken to hospital, it said.
Taiwan elections are passionate, noisy affairs, but generally pass off peacefully.
In 2004, then-president Chen Shui-bian of the DPP won re-election by a thin margin after a bullet grazed him and his running mate at a campaign event. The Kuomintang said at the time that incident was staged to win votes.
The Kuomintang favors close ties with China, which considers Taiwan to be merely a Chinese province and claims it as its sacred territory. The DPP favors the island's formal independence.