Democratic Alternative (Finland)

This article is about the Democratic Alternative of Finland. For other parties with the same name, see Democratic Alternative (disambiguation).

Democratic Alternative (Finland)
Finnish name	Demokraattinen Vaihtoehto
Founded	April 12, 1986 (1986-04-12)
Dissolved	1990
Split from	Finnish People's Democratic League
Merged into	Left Alliance
Newspaper	Tiedonantaja
Student wing	Socialist Student League
Youth wing	Revolutionary Youth League
Women's wing	Women's Democratic Action Centre
Politics of Finland Political parties Elections

Democratic Alternative (Finnish: Demokraattinen Vaihtoehto) was a political party in Finland. Deva was formed in 1986 by expelled members of the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and its mass front Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL). 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), 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, Ensio Laine, Marja-Liisa Löyttyjärvi and Esko-Juhani Tennilä were elected MPs. Jouko Kajanoja 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 (19,6%, 7 councillors) and Nokia (15,5%, 6). Deva also participated in trade union and cooperative elections.

Leaders

• Leo Suonpää 4/1986–12/1986
• Kristiina Halkola 1986–1989 (first female party chair in Finnish party history)
• Marja-Liisa Löyttyjärvi 1989–1990