Manifesto Not Key For People To Support John Lee: Tam

John Lee's campaign chief on Monday said there may be little time for Hongkongers to go through Lee’s election manifesto – which is still a work in progress – but people can nevertheless support the former chief secretary's bid for the top job if they agree with his vision for the territory.

Tam Yiu-chung, from the DAB, told an RTHK programme that Lee has been collecting views for his election blueprint after he officially announced his decision to run in next month’s Chief Executive election.

The National People's Congress Standing Committee member said even though time is running short, Lee needs to draft his platform very carefully as it will lay the framework for the next administration and involve proposed solutions to tackle specific problems.

Tam conceded that members of the public may not have enough time to fully understand Lee’s manifesto before the election takes place in early May.

“Yes, the time may be tight when compared with the past. But I believe people will look at the broader direction and look at the candidate's past works and see if they agree with his targets, direction and vision and whether they trust him. If people think he's the right candidate and is capable of leading us, they can still give their views later on,” he said.

Tam also said Lee’s “results-oriented” approach to governance can help increase policy efficiency, dismissing concerns that it would mean less consultation with members of the community.

“Actually this approach is to meet people’s expectations. What do the people expect? They expect the government to help them solve the problems they are facing as quickly as possible. But if you drag your feet, say this and that and introduce some piecemeal solutions, people will think that you are using [procedures] as a shield,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lee has been out and about on Monday to meet political parties and groups to secure support and gather views for his policy platform.

The CE hopeful had earlier said he’s so far received some 300 nominations.

A contender must get at least 188 nominations, with at least 15 from each of the Election Committee's five sectors, in order to run in the May 8 election.