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Can polls’ biggest loser become a winner again? Pro-Beijing party must reinvent itself quickly, as it did before

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Can polls’ biggest loser become a winner again? Pro-Beijing party must reinvent itself quickly, as it did before

Change will help to shake up leadership, keep government at arm’s length, get a boost from Beijing, observers say

Members of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) at a press conference after the district council election results on November 25.

Crushed pro-establishment camp counts cost of defeat as it vows to review how it gauges public mood and its relationship with government

One core member says defeat was expected, blaming it on anti-government protests caused by deep-rooted tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China.

In the wake of more than five months of anti-government protests, the pro-Beijing party won only 21 of the 179 seats it contested. It won 119 in the 2015 polls.

Sunday’s rout was not its first taste of defeat. In November 2003, the party emerged the big loser in district council elections, four months after a 500,000-strong march forced the government to withdraw draft national security legislation commonly referred to as Article 23.