Civil Force
In the pro-Beijing camp, the flagship party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) filled a total of 171 candidates in the contest, followed by the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions with a total of 51 candidates of which 3 of them were also DAB members. The two relatively new pro-Beijing parties, the middle-class-oriented New People's Party (NPP) and the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) developed their forces at district level since their creations in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The New People's Party got 4 of the 12 candidates elected in 2011 and at least eight incumbent councillors had since joined the party, while a merger with Civil Force, a local political group with strongholds in the New Territories East, brought the number up to 30. The NPP had a total of 42 contestants while the BPA had 16, slightly fewer than another pro-business party, the Liberal Party's 20 which four of the Liberal candidates failed to avoid direct competition with other pro-Beijing parties and would have to fight a fellow pro-Beijing candidate.