“I believe I am better positioned and can be more capable than other election candidates in becoming an effective bridge among Hong Kong people and between Hong Kong and China,” Woo said during the press conference.

Watch: Woo Kwok-hing in Facebook Live Q&A with SCMP politics reporter Joyce Ng

Woo immediately took aim at Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, blasting his administration for causing rifts within Hong Kong society.

He took aim at Leung: “I do not think Mr C.Y. Leung has been able to address public grievances and halt the division of our society to ensure that Hong Kong’s best overall interests are served.”

Woo’s announcement came as a surprise even to people who had known him for decades.

“I’ve never heard him talk about politics. When he said he would run for chief executive, it shocked me,” said Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a former lawmaker and barrister who has known Woo for three

Woo is the third judge to run for the top post since Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty. Former chief justice Yang Ti-liang and senior judge Simon Li Fook-sean ran in 1996 but lost to Tung Chee-hwa, who ­became the city’s first chief executive immediately following the handover.

Born in 1946, Woo is the fourth child in a family of 10 children. He graduated from Ying Wah College in 1965 and studied law in England, receiving his Master of Laws from University College London in 1969.

Watch: retired judge throws hat in ring for Hong Kong’s chief executive election

Woo has been involved in the legal profession for nearly his entire adult life. He was called to the British Bar in 1969 and the Hong Kong Bar in 1970. He practised private law from 1970 to 1992. Woo was appointed Queen’s Council in 1987 and appointed as a High Court judge in 1992

In a booklet laying out his blueprint, Woo said his childhood life in Jordan had inspired him to be a lawyer. He recalled the restless scenes he saw in that part of Hong Kong as he wandered there every night: “I often saw a man, clad in a black Chinese-style suit with all the four pockets on his shirt filled with money, coming to collect money from the hawkers ... I knew he was collecting ‘protection fees’.”

“This planted anger in my mind, and I hoped one day I could fight this evil force. That’s how I became a barrister, to build a just and charitable society.”

The chief executive hopeful stepped down as a deputy High Court judge on October 18 and announced his candidacy intentions a week later.

Civic Party chairman and barrister Alan Leong Kah-kit, who had argued cases in front of Woo as a barrister, found him to be “alright” and a judge who decided cases “in a common sense sort of way”.

“You seldom found in his judgements elaborate citation of cases. They were seldom a legal facias,” he said.

Former director of public prosecutions Grenville Cross believed Woo’s “wide qualities” would “undoubtedly” benefit him if he were to be elected chief executive.

“He is a sensible, judicious and righteous man – not afraid of new challenges, gets on well with people, with a good sense of humour, tough when necessary,” he said.

What Woo said at his first press conference drew the approval of some Hongkongers.

.

His advocacy for the controversial national security law – he said Hong Kong should make the law itself before Beijing tried to impose the mainland version on the city – may not have pleased everyone, but at least some pro-democracy lawyers, like Edward Chan King-sang, said that was a reasonable view.

But Woo’s apparent pro-democracy stance remains to be tested. As he announced his election platform with a political reform proposal that was thin on details, some pan-democrats grew sceptical.

Woo wants to broaden the electoral roll of the Election Committee, which selects the chief executive, from 250,000 voters to cover all the three million eligible voters in the city in 15 years.

But pan-democrats like Alan Leong said Woo’s proposal was no way universal suffrage. Others like lawmaker Charles Mok urged Woo to clarify if he would accept restrictions proposed by Beijing earlier.

Whether Woo can win the support of at least some of the democratic camp’s members in the committee – he needs 150 nominations to qualify – will depends on whether he can work out a clearer framework for reform.