Taiwan’s ruling party Kuomintang agreed on halting construction for a nuclear power plant after a public protest, demands from opposition Democratic Progressive Party, and a hunger strike by a former opposition chairman.

President Ma Ying-jeou held a meeting with cabinet members including Premier Jiang Yi-huah, ministers of economy and atomic energy, as well as Taipei and Taichung mayors, according to a post on his Facebook page last night, agreeing to put on hold all works on the island’s No. 4 nuclear power plant. Security checks on its first unit will be exempt from the halt.

Pressure has been mounting on the Taiwan government to stop the NT$283.8 billion ($9.4 billion) project, as 20,000 people rallied in front of the presidential office against the plant yesterday, according to an organizer estimate. Opposition DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang, in a televised meeting with President Ma, called for a suspension of the works. Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex index fell 1 percent at the start of trade today.

“We’re putting the No. 4 nuclear power plant on hold, in the spirit of leaving the next generation an option,” President Ma said on the Facebook post. “When we need it in the future, it can offer an additional choice.”

Former DPP Chairman Lin Yi-hsiung has been staging a hunger strike against the plant since April 22 inside a Christian chapel, rebuffing visits from the president and the premier.

Taiwan’s Longmen Nuclear Power Plant, the island’s fourth nuclear power plant, was initially proposed in 1980 and is located 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Taipei. It has two units with a planned capacity of 2,700 megawatts, which would account for about 6 percent of Taiwan’s installed capacity when completed.

Construction for the project’s unit one is completed, and unit two is more than 90 percent finished, the economy ministry said on its website April 25.