Meanwhile, during the legislature’s question-and-answer session, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) asked Jiang to reconsider his decision to step down if the government loses the referendum and construction of the plant is halted.
Jiang tying his tenure to the outcome of the referendum has shifted the focus of the referendum from nuclear issues to political confrontation, and might discourage government officials from being honest about the safety of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and how halting its construction would affect the country, Ting said.
Jiang declined DPP Legislator Chao Tien-ling’s (趙天麟) request that anti-nuclear groups receive the same amount of government funding as Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) to campaign for their views in the run-up to the referendum.
However, Jiang promised that the government would not distort the positions of anti-nuclear groups during the referendum campaign and pledged to have the groups’ arguments presented to the public correctly and in detail when the government counters their contentions.