Julio Guzmán

Guzman announced he was running for president of Peru in July 2015. He rose in the polls throughout the final months of 2015 until registering 5% of the vote in January.[8] By February 2016, he had risen to 20% of the vote, second to leading candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter of imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori.[9] During the campaign in February 2016, two militants from the Spanish left-wing Podemos party accused Julio Guzmán of having copied their presidential campaign.[10]

In February 2016, according to a statement from the National Elections Jury, the requests for modification of the electronic registration form of the National Executive Committee (CEN) and the Electoral Tribunal of the political group Todos por el Perú were declared inadmissible. On February 19, the JEE (Special Electoral Jury) ruled inadmissible the candidacy of Julio Guzmán for the 2016 Presidential Elections.[11] However, on February 24, the Lima Center 1 Special Electoral Jury approved the candidacy, after having corrected the observations made and comply with the requirements set forth in the regulations of the Electoral Law.[12]

In March 2016, the National Elections Jury barred him from the election after it found irregularities in the party's internal processes.[13] A later investigation finalized in 2020 found that Guzman's disqualification was a result of corruption by the Cuellos Blancos del Puerto, a Peruvian drug-trafficking network inside the National Jury of Elections.[14] Guzmán has later referred to his disqualification as "the worst moment of his life".

In 2016, Guzman separated from All for Peru and founded the Purple Party. Guzman registered the party in Peru seeking to participate in the 2021 presidential elections.[15] Following allegations surrounding Peruvian officials being involved in the Odebrecht scandal, Guzman stated that the "Odebrecht case is the meteor that will extinguish the dinosaurs" of Peru's political realm.[16]

In August 2020, the Lava Jato Special Team of the Public Ministry, which is investigating the Odebrecht case in Peru, opened an investigation into Guzmán for money laundering. The proceedings will be carried out because the candidate would have received 400 thousand dollars as a contribution from the Odebrecht company for the 2016 campaign.[22][23][24] Guzmán responded, "it is materially impossible that I have received money from Odebrecht" and described as "absurd" the complaint "of a third party who has the hobby of reporting everyone [...] on the basis of an interview that a ex-congressman gave on a local radio”.[25]