The beleaguered National Freedom Party has gone back to the Electoral Court in a last-ditch effort to contest the local government elections. The NFP filed papers on Wednesday in an effort to convince the Electoral Court to have a decision preventing the party from contesting the upcoming local government elections overturned.Last week the IEC dismissed an application to review its decision to disqualify the party from participating in the August 3 municipal poll after its treasurer Xolani Ndlovu failed pay the R400 000 deposit by the June 2 deadline. At that time the NFP approached the Electoral Court but they were unsuccessful.Fransman back as ANC chair in Western CapeThe NFP's acting national chairman Bheki Gumbi said they hoped the court will contact them with a date in the next day or two to present the evidence they had gathered on why they missed the deadline. "We hope that we can present this evidence in a court of law and we also hope that‚ because of the evidence we have gathered‚ the IEC will change its decision so the NFP can participate in the local government elections‚" he said. It has emerged that Ndlovu's cheque to the IEC apparently bounced. He went underground immediately after the politically embarrassing incident.While Ndlovu accepted the blame‚ he claimed he was stressed and under pressure from some party members who threatened those in leadership‚ including himself.The prospect of not participating in the election is likely to have put a lot of strain on NPF leader Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi who only made a rare first public appearance at the party's manifesto launch in Vryheid in northern KwaZulu-Natal last month after suffering a stroke and falling into a coma for several days last year.Even there‚ the NFP leader was unable to deliver her speech to drum up support ahead of the local government elections. Instead it was delivered by her daughter‚ Gugu Gumede‚ because she had not fully recovered. - TMG Digital/The Times..