A group of young politicians who became active during last year’s anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong have recently formed the backbone of the Civic Party’s new leadership, aiming to build a strong community-based network to sustain the city’s democratic movements.

The pro-democracy group elected 10 new members of its executive committee in late November, who will lead the party over the next two years. The average age of 38.5 years is the youngest in the party’s history.

The party has survived a crisis of disbandment with some long-serving members announcing their departures after the mainland Chinese and Hong Kong governments targeted the pro-democracy group twice in months. However, chairperson Alan Leong and other senior members were moved by younger party members’ commitment to continue their fight, and decided to form a new leadership.

Leong remains as the party’s chairperson while former legislator Jeremy Tam will be one of his deputies. District councilors Lee Yue-shun, Jessica Leung and Leticia Wong, who won the elections for the local affairs councils last November, have joined the executive committee for the first time.

Four of its members planning to stand in the Legislative Council elections were disqualified by Hong Kong electoral authorities in July. After postponing the election and allowing four pro-democracy lawmakers, including three Civic Party members, to remain in office for an extra year, the city’s government expelled the four from the chamber in November. The move triggered the mass resignation of 15 other democratic legislators.

Without a pro-democracy presence in the legislature, the days of representative democracy in Hong Kong have gone, Lee, an Eastern District councilor, told Apple Daily. But the Civic Party will play the role of a shadow cabinet to keep the government in check, regularly meeting the press to respond to ongoing issues, he said.

“We can foresee the legislature will become more rotten. We need to think how else we can monitor and give pressure to the regime,” Lee said.

It will be an uphill battle for pro-democracy groups to continue their fight in the face of increasingly hostile attacks from authorities. Yet Lee will carry on, and turn his focus to building a strong local network and “yellow” economic circles to sustain the city’s pro-democracy campaign.

“This will be tough. But we need to keep our momentum,” he said.

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