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Left-right split in Legco seating plan

As was the case in the previous Legislative Council, the pan-democrats in the new Legco will sit to the left of the president's seat, while the pro-establishment camp will sit on the right (as shown in our illustration, above), when the legislature convenes on October 10.

Among the pan-democrats, the Civic Party will take over the front rows previously occupied by the Democrats, who now move to the back rows.

The Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the single biggest party in Legco, will sit in the section adjacent to officials' seats on the right, along with major ally the Federation of Trade Unions.

The DAB's allies in the section also include pro-business group Economic Synergy, which is expected to form a new pro-business alliance with its independent neighbours and new faces Lo Wai-kwok of engineering and Christopher Cheung Wah-fung of financial services.

The Professional Forum, which is also expected to join the alliance, will sit in the middle section, where there will be a mix of pan-democratic and pro-establishment lawmakers, including members from the Liberal Party and the New People's Party and a loose group of four independents representing the industrial, insurance, medical, and the architectural, surveying and planning sectors.

Three high-profile supporters and nominators of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, all from functional constituencies, will sit together on the newly created sixth row. Their neighbours will be the four radical lawmakers - three from People Power and the League of Social Democrats' Leung Chun-ying - some of whom have been moved further away from the president's seat, which was often a target for the missiles in the past.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: A house divided awaits its occupants
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