THE US-backed indigenous candidate for the Ecuadorean presidency Yaku Perez has backed demands for military intervention to prevent the return of “Correismo” if frontrunner Andres Arauz wins.

Mr Arauz is backed by former president Rafael Correa, who left office with record high approval ratings in 2017 but whose legacy was bulldozed by his successor Lenin Moreno, who reversed his socialist policies and drove him into exile.

“Correismo” refers to the democratic socialist movement associated with Mr Correa, which has yet to lose an election in the country.

Mr Perez retweeted a demand by Anti-corruption Commission member Simon Espinoza that called for the first round of the election to be rerun, the National Electoral Council to be replaced, investigations into debunked claims of criminal financing for Mr Arauz’s campaign and for the army to intervene to deliver on these measures.

Mr Perez summed up the demands by saying: “The armed forces must intervene to give clarity to the elections.”

He is currently fighting for the annulment of first-round results that placed him third and exclude him from the runoff.