TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A referendum about the fate of the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant will take place on Aug. 23, but there will be no referendum about capital punishment, the Central Election Commission said Friday.

The second reactor at the nuclear plant in Pingtung ceased operations on May 17, completing the government’s plan to turn Taiwan into a nuclear-free homeland this year. The opposition however wanted its life to be extended to prevent power shortages, even though officials have said a restart would take years due to the necessary safety reviews.

The election commission said nuclear energy amounted to a major government policy, so a referendum on the subject was allowed under the law, Radio Taiwan International reported.

However, the demand for a referendum about the death penalty did not comply with the law, as there was no policy to end capital punishment, the commission decided. The opposition on May 16 used its majority at the Legislative Yuan to approve a proposal for a referendum against the abolition of the death penalty. 

Critics condemned the move as unnecessary and as a waste of public funds because the government was not planning to end capital punishment in the first place.

The question proposed by the opposition for the referendum also elicited accusations of vagueness. The KMT wanted the vote to ask, “Do you agree with the policy that judges in appellate courts do not need unanimous agreement to sentence a defendant to the death penalty?”