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Court to deliver judgement on EFF and IEC case

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The North Gauteng High Court is on Tuesday expected deliver judgment on an urgent application by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The party wants the IEC’s compulsory deposit for parties to contest elections set aside.

The newly formed party believes that the the R605 000 required to contest in all provinces as well the national assembly is unjust.
The deposit is used as a measure to determine if a political party can run a successful election campaign and is refundable once a party has secured seats.

Parties have less than 36 hours before the Wednesday 5pm deadline to pay the deposit and submit their candidate lists.

The EFF hopes to have the deposit amount reduced or scrapped and be replaced by measures such as assessing a political party’s audited membership as well as whether the organizations has offices to run its affairs.

However, last week IEC lawyer advocate Marumo Moerane argued that this is a policy which is practiced in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and India, where he says parties pay millions of rands to contest elections.

But the EFF believes the amount is a deliberate move to prevent new parties from participating in a democratic process and has vowed to go up to the Constitutional Court for relief.

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