The Liberal Party fielded candidates for the first time in the 1994 District Board elections, reaping 18 seats. In the 1995 Legislative Council election, Chairman Allen Lee successfully gained the party's first seat in the New Territories North-east direct election with nine other seats gained in the indirect functional constituency elections, focused on business interests. The party has maintained its unbalanced advantages in the business sector's indirect elections in functional constituencies while having few success in the popular direct elections in geographical constituencies. During the last years of British rule and early years of the SAR administration, the party remained one of the three largest in Legco, behind the pro-democratic Democratic Party and ahead of the Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB).