2020年3月，各大政黨分別展開黨內程序，而各區有意參選人亦開始四出進行「摸底」探路 。呢個時候，戴耀廷同埋區諾軒一齊倡議包含「公民參與」嘅協調機制，以減少出選名單為目標，又指期望促成「棄選」共識，以攞到最多議席 。3月10日，戴耀廷喺《香港蘋果日報》撰文，提出兩階段協調同埋公民參與，最終目標係盡量減少參與官方選舉嘅名單數目，越接近該區嘅目標議席數目就越好 。之後，戴耀廷同埋區諾軒開始走訪各區，以協調初選機制 ，最終經過多個協調會後，初選機制逐漸成形 。
In March 2020, the major political parties launched their own internal party procedures, and the prospective candidates in each district also began to explore the way out. At this time, Tai Yiu-ting and Au Nok-hin jointly advocated a coordination mechanism that includes "citizen participation", with the goal of reducing the number of voters, and said that they hoped to promote a consensus on "abstaining from election" in order to win the most seats. On March 10, Tai wrote an article in Hong Kong's Apple Daily, proposing a two-stage coordination and civic engagement, with the ultimate goal of minimising the number of lists to participate in official elections, and getting as close to the district's target number of seats as possible. After that, Tai Yiu-ting and Au Nok-hin began to visit various districts to coordinate the primary election mechanism, which eventually took shape after a number of coordination meetings.