Tung Chee-hwa joked at a dinner attended by lawmakers, including Ms Eu, at Government House last night that while hand counts had been sought in Florida in an attempt to break the deadlock in the US presidential election, Hong Kong had used this method for years.

He also joked that lawmakers who did not want to reveal how they had voted in Legco should use a system where a computer would punch a hole in a voting paper. Legislators could then create a 'dimpled vote' in which a hole was not successfully punched and the computer would fail to read how votes had been cast.