“We hope to strive for community support for Lee and to raise people’s understanding of his policies by reaching out to the community,” Tam told the Post. “But due to the constraints of the social-distancing rules, we’ll have to study how we can achieve that.”

On a radio programme on Saturday, Tam said the team hoped to get the former chief secretary elected with a very high number of voters from the 1,500-strong Election Committee charged with picking the chief executive.

“We hope to garner over 500 nominations, from about a third of Election Committee members. Then we will fight for a very high voter turnout for Lee,” he said.

“We are now contacting the members via online meetings and phone. We may also conduct face-to-face visits, but we need to be careful about not violating anti-epidemic rules.”

Tam described Lee as an ideal person for the job, saying he admired the former chief secretary’s track record, performance and political stance.

According to Lee’s campaign office, its deputy directors include: Sino Group vice-chairman and real estate developer Daryl Ng Win-kong; former constitutional and mainland affairs minister Raymond Tam Chi-yuen; lawmaker for sports and culture Kenneth Fok Kai-kong; Bank of East Asia co-chief executive Brian David Li Man-bun; Senior Counsel Johnny Mok Shiu-luen; and lawmaker Kennedy Wong Ying-ho, who represents the import and export sector.

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong vice-chairman Chan Yung, Federation of Education Workers vice-chairman Tang Fei and Hong Kong Foundation deputy executive director Stephen Wong Yuen-shan are among the other deputy directors.

Stephen Wong, who also serves as a lawmaker, is one of the chief writers of Lee’s election platform, in particular issues on housing and land.

The lawmaker has a strong background in economics, having studied the subject at an undergraduate level at the University of Chicago. Wong was also awarded a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Yale University.

Tam said the campaign team was already drafting Lee’s election platform.

“John Lee is still collecting views from all sides … He will finalise the content of his election platform and Hong Kong’s development direction,” he said. “We have several deputy directors acting as writers and wordsmiths. They are very senior.”

He added Lee should seek to reboot Hong Kong’s battered economy and improve livelihoods should he get elected as chief executive.

Daryl Ng described Lee as fair, open-minded and willing to listen to the views of the business community.

“He is determined to make Hong Kong an even greater international financial centre,” he said. “He is well experienced to ensure stability and security in our city, as these two elements are important to enable a vibrant international financial hub to thrive.”

Stephen Wong said each member of the campaign team would make use of their unique expertise and networks to garner voter support in their respective sectors, as well as collecting the views of different parties to help formulate Lee’s election platform.

“We work as a team with members reaching out to different sectors. We hope to gain support from a wider spectrum of society,” he told the Post.

Chan, a social worker, said he would advise Lee on a wide range of topics, covering social welfare, public administration and other livelihood issues after he had collected views from the public and different parties.

“We’ll have a discussion and form a consensus about the final version of Lee’s election platform,” he said.

Professor Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official think tank, said Lee’s campaign team members should use their different skill sets to try to restore public confidence in Hong Kong and create an upbeat atmosphere amid the current coronavirus outbreak.

“People can’t see hope now and are worried about the future. Lee’s team should seek to lift up the melancholy mood and enhance people’s confidence in Hong Kong,” he said.

A source from Lee’s team said a presidium, or council of chairpersons, would be set up under the campaign office and would comprise a number of heavyweights from the city’s pro-establishment camp.

During the 2017 leadership race, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s campaign office included 10 deputy directors led by then executive councillor Bernard Chan.

Lam went on to defeat former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah to become chief executive.

Nominations for this year’s leadership race officially opened on Sunday and will end on April 16. But hopefuls will need to submit their forms two days ahead of the deadline, as the electoral office will close for the Easter holiday, which starts on April 15.

Lee, the sole candidate for Hong Kong’s top job with the central government’s blessing, has less than one week to secure at least 188 nominations from the 1,500-strong Election Committee.

Recently revamped election rules require him to receive no fewer than 15 votes from each of the five sectors of the powerful body.