HONG KONG - A Hong Kong television company behind the annual "Miss Asia" beauty contest has admitted the final outcome did not match the real tally of public votes, a newspaper here reported Tuesday.

The "Miss Asia Pageant" held earlier this month used public voting for the first time in its 20-year history, instead of the traditional panel of judges, and people sent in their choice via text message and on the Internet.

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

"This is an unacceptable issue of trust," said Linus Cheung, the executive chairman of ATV, according to the English-language daily.

"The number of votes shown on TV on December 7 was wrong."

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

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

No one from ATV was immediately available for comment.

Last year, the BBC was forced to suspend several members of staff after it admitted fixing the winners of phone-ins and interactive competitions on six shows including charity appeals and children's programmes.

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

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