The Independent Electoral Commission of South says postponing the upcoming elections would be a very costly exercise that would amount to a loss of R500 million. The IEC has filed an application at the Constitutional Court, opposing an application from the newly formed Labour Party of South Africa attempting to have the elections pushed to a later date because it couldn't meet the deadline to submit its candidate list.

The Labour Party argued that it failed to meet the deadline to submit its candidate list due to technical glitches within the IEC's online portal. Ace Magashule's African Congress for Transformation and the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats, share the same notion with the Labour Party and all the parties want IEC's online portal re-opened for the candidate list submissions. However, not only does the Labour Party want an extension to the deadline, but they also want the date of the elections changed.

However, the IEC said moving the election date or re-opening the submissions portal was doable but it won't come cheap. "Their demands would be immensely costly and come with a price tag of R587 million. The online portal did not have any technical glitches and similarly parties were able to comply." The IEC blamed the parties for submitting their lists late. IEC commissioner, Nomsa Masuku, said that the portal for signature capture had been open since 26 January and that the parties had 'quite some time to begin the process'. "Anyone who is preparing to contest the process should know that once an election date is proclaimed, the train starts moving," Masuku said.