Hong Kong - Hong Kong's Asia Television (ATV) has admitted that the final outcome of its Miss Asia beauty contest, held last week, did not match the real tally of public votes.

The Miss Asia Pageant used public voting via SMS and the Internet for the first time in its 20-year history instead of a judging panel.

But ATV has said the tally of public votes was different from the figures given at the contest, the South China Morning Post said yesterday.

'This is an unacceptable issue of trust,' ATV's executive chairman Linus Cheung reportedly said. 'The number of votes shown on TV on Dec 7 was wrong.'

The competition was won by Hong Kong student Eunis Yao, 23, who beat Canadian Belinda Yan, 22, and third-placed model, Lene Lai, 19, from Taiwan.

Mr Cheung did not say what the real result was or whether the places would change, but announced an independent investigation into the incident, the Post said.

The embarrassment for ATV comes amid a leadership flap, as Mr Cheung also said the company's controversial chief executive Ricky Wong had resigned.

However, Mr Wong said a few hours later that he had not resigned and had not been notified of any such developments, the Post said.