Disqualification of second-placed contender Julio Guzmán a month before election sparks indignation and accusations of meddling by other candidates

Peru’s electoral tribunal has barred the second-placed presidential candidate Julio Guzmán from the electoral race over a technical error in the registration of his candidacy.

Just a month before a presidential election on 10 April, the electoral body rejected an appeal by Guzmán’s political party Todos Por el Perú on Wednesday, excluding the 45-year-old economist from the race.

Fourth-placed candidate Cesar Acuña, the millionaire owner of three universities accused of plagiarism, was also barred. The tribunal upheld an accusation that Acuña had broken a new electoral law against vote-buying by handing out money to voters.

The pair had appealed the decision made by a lower court, the Special Electoral Tribunal, last week. The ruling had sparked indignation and accusations of meddling by other powerful but less popular presidential candidates.

Guzmán supporters called it an attack on democracy. The exclusion of the two candidates leaves around a quarter of Peru’s potential votes available.

Guzmán, a former vice-minister and Inter-American Development Bank economist, had called the decision an “anticipated fraud” and part of a “corrupt system”. In a race dominated by familiar faces, Guzman appealed to 63% of voters who wanted a new figure, according to an pollster GFK.

A virtual unknown a few months ago, Guzmán had surged in the polls to second place and was mooted as the only candidate capable of defeating frontrunner Keiko Fujimori in a run-off vote on 5 June. Fujimori, who polls indicate has around one-third of the vote, is the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed in 2009 for human rights abuses and corruption during his decade in power from 1990 to 2000.

In a statement, Guzman’s Todos Por El Peru party rejected the electoral tribunal’s ruling calling it “flagrantly illegal and unconstitutional” and insisted it would continue in the race.

In a pointed reference to frontrunner Keiko Fujimori, whose opponents accuse her of illegally handing out prizes and gifts to voters on the campaign trail, it said several political groups had broken the rules but had not been asked to withdraw from the race. Fujimori’s political party has rejected the allegations.

“If their cases are not treated with the same criteria, the current election and potential elected authorities become illegitimate,” Guzman said in the statement.

In response to the ruling, political scientist at Harvard University, Steven Levitsky, told The Guardian: “This sets a terrible precedent and is likely erode the already low legitimacy of Peru’s democratic institutions.”

“I cannot think of a democracy anywhere in the contemporary world in which major presidential contenders are excluded from the race for minor infractions,” he said.

“In fact, there is a real possibility that Keiko Fujimori will win, and that Julio Guzman will be able to point to polls and say that had he not been excluded, the outcome would have been different,” he added.

“In other words, the very outcome of the presidential election may be called into question.”