Pro-democracy activists have welcomed the formation of The Frontier while ruling out suggestions it will cause splits in the camp.
A spokesman for the Democratic Party, the biggest party in the Legislative Council, Dr Yeung Sum, said its emergence should not create a clash. 'They are the same batch of people in the Legco. It's good they eventually banded together,' he said.
There would be no problems in co-operating as they upheld the same stance on democracy, he said. However, in June Frontier members and Democrats failed to organise together a mock election for the chief executive.
Mr Yeung said: 'It is good to run the election separately as more people will be able to learn about the campaigns and more voices can be heard.' Another leading Democrat, Dr Law Chi-kwong, said The Frontier would not 'lead the Democrats by the nose'.
Frederick Fung Kin-kee, chairman of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, said he did not expect a split among liberals.
'[The legislators] have been teaming up on certain issues anyway, I do not see a big difference,' he said.