THE Keep it Straight and Simple (KISS) party does not expect its electoral support to grow substantially this year, but has entered the race once again without having won enough support to win a seat in Parliament in the three elections it has contested since 1994.

Party founder Claire Gaiford is pushing ahead and will be on the ballot on May 7, most likely for the last time.

During this year’s polls, smaller political parties will not only compete with larger parties for support, but are also expected to pay the Electoral Commission (IEC) as much as R500,000 to contest the national elections.

The deposit was less than R30,000 in 1994. Newcomer the Economic Freedom Fighters challenged this in court, but failed to get the lofty deposit scrapped.

Ms Gaiford has contested every national democratic election, with the exception of the 1999 polls. An outspoken supporter of classic liberal traditions, she did not have kind words to describe the past 20 years of governance and the state of politics under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC).

"In fact it has become even more negative, especially in the past five years. Everyone is moaning. In fact, at times, I suspect the media dreads the day that President Jacob Zuma leaves office because then they lose the sensational scandals. It really worries me. The whole system here is still the same," Ms Gaiford said.

She said she was under no illusions about her prospects at this year’s polls and was prepared to walk away from her political career for good after the elections.

"You can bang your head against the wall but if you see people are no longer listening you feel so much better when you stop. But it doesn’t worry me. I just feel it’s the struggle for liberty that is eternal," Ms Gaiford said.

After the elections she will continue studying, upgrade her Heidelberg home and take up mountain biking.

Meanwhile, another small party’s hopes of having the steep deposit declared unconstitutional ahead of this year’s elections were dashed.

Africa Unite Party leader Robin Denton told Business Day on Wednesday that the Constitutional Court dismissed his party’s application to have the "expensive" deposits declared unconstitutional, finding that the matter was not urgent.

Mr Denton said donors from the United Kingdom and the US have agreed to give his party up to R1m for his case, which he intends to take to a high court.

He said, according to his research, that South Africa had among the most expensive election deposits of any democracy in the world.