The legislature president has brushed off a rumour that he is teaming up with a former financial secretary to run for the city's top job in 2017. Jasper Tsang Yok-sing admitted he lunched with Antony Leung Kam-chung, now a businessman, on three occasions but said the duo were working to reach out to various sectors to forge consensus on looming political reform. Tsang dismissed an article published yesterday by Chinese-language website Bastille Post, a platform backed by the Sing Tao News Corporation. The article speculated on his frequent lunches with Leung and others where reform of the chief executive and Legislative Council elections was the main topic. "These luncheons organised by Tsang and Leung are apparently their warm-up exercises to run for the chief executive race," it says. "Tsang will back Leung to contest the race instead, if he finds the situation does not favour him … They are teaming up and supporting each other." Tsang said the pair shared the vision that the city "could not afford to stay stagnant constitutionally", a message they were eager to convey to various sectors. "I can confirm Antony and I attended three lunches together. The sole purpose was to try to do what we can to foster consensus, which is so necessary for 2017. "The report has only got the names right. The rest is fabrication … I do not want any speculation that either of us is running for chief executive to scare people off," Tsang said. Andrew Fung Ho-keung, chief executive of the Policy Research Institute, said he had joined with fellow institute director Tai Hay-lap and Tsang to meet with different groups in the past months to discuss reform. "Leung joined a few gatherings," Fung said. "He shared our view that the city would become ungovernable if universal suffrage could not be attained in 2017." Leung quit as financial secretary after he was found to have bought a car ahead of tax increases on new vehicles in 2003.
