Chief executive hopeful Leung Chun-ying (pictured) suffered setbacks in Sunday's voting.
His allies only secured 58 seats, just over a third of the total for rival Henry Tang Ying-yen. He also barely managed to keep his committee seat in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - he was 51st out of the 55 representatives.
Leung says he is still confident he can win because of his hard work, policies and ability.
Meanwhile, former chief secretary Tang has already made the final round, while pan-democrats collected 205 seats. Backing came from their attention to traditional areas like law, education, and IT.
Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan and the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood lawmaker Frederick Fung Kin-kee will take part in a pan-democratic primary election on January 8.
Political commentator James Sung Lap-kung says Tang has the upper hand in the election committee balloting, but Leung still has a chance, as 500 election committees are yet to make up their minds.
