Tsang to launch election office, even if he is still coy on candidacy

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's campaign office will be up and running today, setting into full swing the electioneering for the forthcoming chief executive poll.

The chief executive will visit his campaign office on the 28th floor of the Bank of East Asia Harbour View Centre in Wan Chai later today but he will not officially declare his candidacy until February 1 at the earliest, according to a source familiar with his campaign.

With about a dozen key staff, the office's opening signals the gathering momentum in Mr Tsang's campaign for a second term, weeks after Alan Leong Kah-kit of the Civic Party declared his candidacy to bring about a contested race.

By yesterday, Mr Leong had collected 42 nominations from Election Committee members, moving towards the 100 needed to run.

Mr Tsang's campaign office is headed by the ex-managing director of New World First Holdings, Adolf Hsu Hsung, a former government colleague and close friend of Mr Tsang's who retired as director of the now-defunct regional services department in March 1998.

Now fully retired, Mr Hsu, 68, takes up the position of secretary-general, a position held by Norman Chan Tak-lam in Mr Tsang's previous campaign, in mid-2005. Since November 2005, Mr Chan has served as Standard Chartered's vice-chairman for Asia.