Chief Executive hopes legislators who boycotted election meeting will attend next session

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said 17 pro-democracy legislators who boycotted a meeting with him yesterday had neglected their duties as Election Committee members.

Mr Tung invited lawmakers to meet him at his election office as part of his re-election campaign. 'I feel that they, being members of the 800-strong Election Committee, should fulfil this duty [to attend the meeting],' he said. 'It's a big pity that they did not come here. I am disappointed.'

The meeting was boycotted by 12 members from the Democratic Party, Emily Lau Wai-hing and Cyd Ho Sau-lan from The Frontier, and three unionist lawmakers, including Lee Cheuk-yan.

They had labelled the meeting on Mr Tung's re-election bid a farce because it was not an open session, and previously criticised the Chief Executive poll as a 'small-circle' election.

Mr Tung said both sides could still communicate at a two-day question-and-answer session he will host at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on January 30 and 31.

He promised he would try to talk to the legislators even if they could not make it to the session next week. But he avoided a question on whether it was his duty as a candidate for the chief executive poll to attend public forums.

Non-affiliated legislator Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, the only legislator from the democratic camp to attend yesterday's meeting, said that even in the absence of an election rival, a candidate can still highlight his or her platform via debate at public forums.