HONG KONG — With Henry Tang announcing on Saturday that he will run for the post of Chief Executive, the election battle for Hong Kong’s top job formally began.

“I feel I am the right person for it,” the former chief secretary for administration told reporters outside the Admiralty MTR station.

“Hong Kong needs a leader who is able to galvanize the population to support him, to galvanize the power and the force of the people to work towards the same goal,” Tang added.

“It is a very serious decision, because Hong Kong is my home. Like the other 7 million Hong Kong people, I was born here, raised here, and I am proud to be a Hong Kong citizen,” he said.

The other contender for the top job, Leung Chun-ying, former convenor of the Executive Council, said he will announce his candidacy on Sunday at a meeting to be attended by about 200 people.

Earlier, former chief executive of the Monetary Authority Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, chairman and chief executive of Bank of East Asia, David Li Kwok-po, and Ocean Park Chairman Allan Zeman had expressed support for Tang.

Before making the formal announcement at Admiralty, Tang had visited Sham Shui Po, which is known as one of the poorest districts in the city with many old tenement buildings.

He held a half-a-hour meeting with a district councilor and expressed particular concerns about subdivided flats and discussed redevelopment plans.