Pan-democrats said on Friday that Legislative Council president Tsang Yok-sing told them Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen asked him to defy convention by voting for the government's electoral reforms.
Yesterday the chief executive denied contacting Tsang about the proposal and whether he should vote for it. Now pan-democrats want Tsang to tell them whether he or the chief executive is telling the truth.
Unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, who was among 10 pan-democrats at a private meeting with the president on Friday, reaffirmed he told them the chief executive had asked him to vote in favour of the proposal.
'He [the president] took the initiative and said the chief executive contacted him and asked him to vote, and suggested the president did not need to resign for the vote,' Lee said yesterday, revealing specific details about the conversation held between the president and lawmakers.
However, the chief executive issued a statement in which he denied he had contacted the president on the constitutional reform proposal or other policies.
Lee said he had been telephoned by the chief executive yesterday. 'The chief executive sounds upset with the row and stressed to me that he has not contacted the president on the reform proposal,' Lee said.