Alan Leong, a well-dressed barrister and experienced politician, Leong has just decided to run an almost hopeless race. He has put his name forward as a candidate to become chief executive of Hong Kong — the leader of the former British colony.

Donald Tsang, the incumbent, is the clear favourite and has already effectively been anointed by the territory’s communist masters in Beijing.

Mr Leong faces a two-tier battle. First, in February, he must win at least 100 nominations from among the 800 carefully elected members of Hong Kong’s Election Committee, and the following month he will need to defeat the incumbent in an open ballot.

He is not deterred. He is a man on a mission. Sitting in his smart book-lined office in central Hong Kong, surrounded by family photos and wearing a well-cut suit and matching tie and pocket handkerchief, he hardly fits the image of a crusader. But his purpose in seeking to contest the election is to further the fight for democracy.

Mr Leong said: “We feel that to rekindle the interest of the people of Hong Kong in the chief executive election we have to field a candidate although our chances may be slim.” Supporting him are members of a group of pan-democratic legislators who number 25 in the 60-member, mainly indirectly elected Legislative Council. Two more radical democrats have chosen to boycott the process, demanding that Beijing should grant Hong Kong universal suffrage immediately.

China, which recovered the territory from Britain in 1997 and now governs it under the “one country, two systems” principle, has insisted that it will not even consider further electoral reforms that would give people a greater say before 2012. Then elections for the chief executive and the Legislative Council will take place, thus effectively putting off any progress towards enabling Hong Kong’s 7million people to choose their own leaders until close to the end of the next decade.

China is nervous that democratic change in Hong Kong could trigger similar demands among the 1.3 billion Chinese on the mainland.

But Mr Leong thinks that Beijing has gained a better understanding of Hong Kong’s desire for open debate since pro-democracy demonstrations in 2003 shocked the leadership. “Beijing will think twice or thrice before stifling competition.”

Mr Leong has already stolen a march on the equally dapper chief executive, known for his trademark bow ties, by taking to the campaign trail.

He has launched a plan to fight pollution — a direct challenge to the widely criticised efforts by Mr Tsang to clean up the skies.

The issue is an emotive one in a city shrouded for weeks on end by a yellow-brown haze created by emissions from factories over the border in China as well as ships, planes and industrial plants in Hong Kong. It is also an economic issue, with business executives moving out for better air — some to Singapore — and one even commutes from New Zealand.

Mr Leong believes that he is at last giving Hong Kong residents a choice between different policies — whether education, town planning or universal suffrage. A recent survey showed that the vast majority of Hong Kong people want a contested chief executive election, although most did not want a change in the leadership. That may prompt the Election Committee to pay heed to what ordinary people want.

Mr Leong pleads the case that his participation helps to give greater meaning to a fledgeling democratic process that barely gives Hong Kong people even an indirect say in choosing their leader.

Some 200 of the 800- member Election Committee are appointed, and others are chosen in voting by a few hundred thousand representatives of various professions.

It is the first time in a decade, and since the electoral system was changed to an open ballot from a secret one, that anyone has dared — or bothered — to mount a serious stand against the chief executive.

Mr Leong puts on a brave face.

The owners

• 1842 China cedes Hong Kong to the British after First Opium War

• 1942 Japanese occupy Hong Kong during World War Two

• 1945 Britain regains Hong Kong after Japansese surrender

• 1992 Chris Patten sworn in as last Governor of Hong Kong

• 1997 Britain hands over administrative control of Hong Kong to People's Republic of China after end of 99-year lease

• 2005 Tung Chee Hwa resigns as chief executive of Hong Kong and Donald Tsang takes over

  Source: News archives

Times Recommends

• Fish and chip shops ‘selling cobbler as cod’
• T in the Park festival at Kinross
• How to get Madonna’s Thighs