Democratic Alternative ( fi, Demokraattinen Vaihtoehto sv, Demokratiskt Alternativ) was a political party in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Deva was formed in 1986 by expelled members of the

Communist Party of Finland The Communist Party of Finland ( fi, Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP; sv, Finlands Kommunistiska Parti) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944. The SKP was banned by ...

and its mass front

Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League ( fi, Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto, SKDL; sv, Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk, DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Pa ...

. In 1990 Deva disintegrated and its members joined the Left Alliance, a merger of SKP and SKDL, founded earlier that year. Deva consisted of

Communist Party of Finland (Unity) The Communist Party of Finland ( fi, Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP sv, Finlands kommunistiska parti, FKP) or New Communist Party of Finland ( fi, Uusi Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, USKP sv, Finlands nya kommunistiska parti, FNKP) is a political ...

, Revolutionary Youth League, Women's Democratic Action Centre, Socialist Students' League and Democratic Civic Association. The Socialist Workers' Party (STP) had candidates on Deva list in the 1987 election but STP was never member of Deva. Deva contested the 1987 parliamentary elections and won 122 181 votes (4.24%).

Marjatta Stenius-Kaukonen Marjatta (IPA: arjatːa is a Finnish female given name. Its nameday is celebrated on the 15th of August. It reached its peak of popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. As of 2013 there were more than 123,000 women registered with this name in Finland. I ...

, Ensio Laine, Marja-Liisa Löyttyjärvi and

Esko-Juhani Tennilä Esko-Juhani Tennilä (born 10 October 1947) is Finnish leftist politician from Lapland and member of Parliament since 1975 until 2011. Tennilä was born in Rovaniemi and has studied in University of Tampere and worked as reporter for Hämeen Yht ...

were elected MPs.

Jouko Kajanoja Jouko Kajanoja (born 1942) is a Finnish economist and politician who served as minister of labour between 1981 and 1982. He was a member of the Communist Party which he headed from 1982 to 1984. Biography Kajanoja was born in 1942. He joined the ...

was the party candidate in the 1988 presidential election. Kajanoja gathered 44 428 votes (1.44%). The electors on Deva list got 56 528 votes (1.89%). In the 1988 local elections, 127 Deva councillors were elected to over 70 municipality councils. Their best results were in

Karkkila Karkkila (; sv, Högfors) is a town and a municipality of Finland. Neighboring municipalities are Lohja, Loppi, Tammela and Vihti. Geography Karkkila is located in the Uusimaa region. The municipality has a population of () and it covers an ar ...

(19.6%, 7 councillors) and

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

(15.5%, 6). Deva also participated in trade union and cooperative elections.

Leaders

* Leo Suonpää 4/1986–12/1986 *

Kristiina Halkola Kristiina is an Estonian and Finnish feminine given name. It is a cognate of the English and French given name Christine. Tiina is often used as a diminutive of Kristiina. People named Kristiina include: * Kristiina Brask (born 1990), Finnish pop ...

1986–1989 (first female party chair in Finnish party history) * Marja-Liisa Löyttyjärvi 1989–1990

Leaders

See also