In it to win it, but playing field not level: Malema

The Economic Freedom Fighters intend to win the 2014 elections, but the playing field is not level, party leader Julius Malema said on Thursday.

"Most of the election laws, rules and regulations favour the existing political parties and the majority party in government," he told reporters in Johannesburg.

The EFF would approach the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the electoral court to raise certain issues.

The first was the R45,000 compulsory registration fee per political party per province, and the R200,000 to be paid per political party nationally.

"Such excludes parties that do not have money, yet have massive following of the people to democratically participate in elections," Malema said.

The second issue was the IEC funding model, according to which only political parties with seats in Parliament got money.

"This is unfair. In essence, the IEC is funding political parties to retain the same number of seats they currently occupy," he said.

The third issue was the Icasa regulation which stated that media coverage, mainly radio and television, would be allocated to parties according to the number of seats they had in Parliament.

Malema said this prejudiced new political parties.

"We believe an amicable resolution of these issues will level the playing field and guarantee all South Africans an equal opportunity to vote for a government of their preference, not a government whose election was over-funded by the IEC and their manifesto imposed through broadcast media," he said.

The EFF would launch its election manifesto in Tembisa on February 22.

"The EFF will hold and continue with manifesto consultative forums and platforms... in order to produce solutions that are ideologically sound, practical, and rooted on what the people of South Africa need," Malema said.