the party program, Torstein Dahle said: "We will bring up issues which have broad agreement among the people of Norway, but are unfortunately not reflected in the other parties' policies." Dahle (2007–2010) Torstein Dahle was unanimously elected party leader by members of the Workers' Communist Party and the Red Electoral Alliance in February 2007. This was met with criticism by outsiders, who claimed that Dahle would not be able to lead the party in a "new direction". The then leader of the Workers' Communist Party, Ingrid Baltzersen, was elected the party's deputy leader. On 23 July 2007, Dahle became subject to media attention when he said that the Taliban and other Afghan rebels had the full right to fight Norwegian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. The attention occurred only days later with the death of a Norwegian army officer in the Logar Province as a Norwegian military unit came under hostile fire. Dahle later replied to the criticism, saying that he did not support the death of Norwegian military personnel. When planning for the 2007 Norwegian local elections, the party thought it had a realistic chance of gaining the mayorship in three municipalities. During the local elections, the party was forced to campaign under the banner of the Red Electoral Alliance, as the Election Committee had not approved its new name. Election researcher Bernt Aardal believed that Red would be able win votes from voters who usually voted for the Socialist Left Party. The reasoning behind this was that the Socialist Left became part of the ruling red–green coalition, and would constantly need to make compromises with the two other parties in the coalition. When confronted with his research, he replied: "This is not a large voter group. We've looked at some polls in the past that RV would give the party one or two seats in Parliament. It is difficult to say whether the new party will make a difference." After experiencing what many described as a bad election, Trond Andresen, a leading political figure within the party, resigned. He said the party was going in a downward spiral and would meet the same fate as the Communist Party of Norway if it did not renew its image. Among several known candidates that were officially announced or rumoured to be running for party leader were Bjørnar Moxnes, Mona Bjørn, Asgeir Drugli, Mimir Kristjansson, and Ingeborg Steinholt. Thomassen (2010–2012) Turid Thomassen