The leader of the League of Social Democrats, Wong Yuk-man, was uncharacteristically modest when he talked in July about the group's decision to contest all five Legislative Council geographical constituencies. He said they hoped to get enough votes to bag the last seat in each constituency.
Mr Wong's modesty was no mere election-speak aimed at managing expectation. Opinion polls conducted not long before polling day suggested that one of the league's two incumbent legislators, 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung, would not be re-elected.
There was also doubt whether Mr Wong, who came to prominence in his former job as a radio talk-show host, would be as popular at the ballot box as he was with listeners.
As polling day drew near, opinion polls showed rising support for Mr Wong and Mr Leung, guaranteeing victory for the former in Kowloon West and suggesting the latter had a strong chance of retaining his seat in New Territories East.
Still, that each finished as the second-most-popular candidate in their constituency came as a surprise. Albert Chan Wai-yip, the group's other incumbent, also won re-election in another hotly contested constituency, New Territories West.
Although league candidates in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon East lost out, the grass-roots-oriented group got about 150,000 votes in the geographical constituencies on the whole - more than one-tenth of the total votes cast.
Given the depth of doubts about the league's strength when it was inaugurated on National Day in 2006, its rise to become a major force in the political landscape has been phenomenal - and thought-provoking. Its success in electoral politics is all the more intriguing.
