Taiwan's fragile new government on Sunday prepared for a landmark legal decision that could spark a new round of political upheaval. After nearly a month of deliberations, the highest court on Monday will announce a ruling on whether the government violated the constitution by scrapping a partially built nuclear plant. The ruling was attracting great attention because it will determine whether President Chen Shui-Bian can continue to rule with a minority government or must bow to an Opposition demand to form a coalition government.
Taiwanese are closely watching whether the court will rule against the government and call the scrapping of the plant unconstitutional, or announce a vague ruling that tries to please both sides.
Bickering over the nuclear plant is thought to have played a role in the stock market's 44 percent decline last year. It also led to the resignation of Premier Tang Fei, who favoured building the roughly US $ 5.4 billion plant.
Newspapers have predicted that the 15 judges making up the grand justices may rule only that Premier Chang Chun-Hsiung had made procedural errors in scrapping the plant without consulting the legislature which approved the budget in 1980.
The government says halting the nuclear project is necessary to protect future generations from possible radiation contamination because Taiwan cannot store the nuclear waste.
But a coalition of opposition leaders has asked that Chang be impeached for the decision.
Bureau Report