Street booths lined the route of the pro-democracy march yesterday, as potential candidates made a last-ditch bid for donations at the largest rally before the Legislative Council elections in September.

Aside from the traditional pan-democratic parties, new party Demosisto - led by student activists Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Joshua Wong Chi-fung - alongside a number of new concern groups that were set up in the wake of the Occupy movement, brought out colourful banners to draw people's attention.

Ironically, some of the groups that refused to join the march because of their split with the event organiser, the Civil Human Rights Front, still jumped on the chance to use the annual platform to garner public support and, more importantly, raise funds for their operation and the upcoming elections.

They included Youngspiration, which claimed they had reservations about the march's theme "Showdown against 689", in mocking reference to the number of votes Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying received in election.

"I think what Hongkongers should do is far more than declaring war at [the] 689," said Youngspiration member Yau Wai-ching. Reconstructing Hongkongers' identity and advocating self-determination for the city should be the priority, she said.

She claimed there was nothing wrong with raising funds at the march as they just want to "spread the ideas".

Also joining the procession yesterday were HKTV chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay, who earlier said he might run in the Legco poll to advocate his "Anyone but CY" drive, and pro-establishment lawmaker Leung Ka-lau. Both said it was their first time joining the march since 2003, when 500,000 people took to the streets to protest against the national security bill that many feared would curb their rights and freedoms.

Leung had recently staged a filibuster in the Legco against the medical registration amendment bill which would allow the government to appoint more members to the medical regulatory body. But the lawmaker said he showed up because many sectors -including media and education -in Hong Kong "were now manipulated" by some forces and had posed a threat to the principle of "one country, two systems".

David Chu Yu-lin, a former National People's Congress member who earlier took up a key role in condemning Leung and his wife for allegedly exerting pressure on airport staff to deliver their daughter's bag to a closed-off area at the airport, went a step further.

The former pro-Beijing lawmaker set up a booth in Wan Chai and gave out 5,000 cups of ice cubes to protesters who marched under the scorching heat.

"I think Hong Kong needs a fresh start and to make it happen, Leung must step down," said Chu, who joined the procession for the first time.