Tens of thousands of protestors have pressed ahead with a mass rally in Bangkok, some expressing frustration that four days of peaceful protests had failed to force Thailand's premier to call elections.
After marching yesterday to an army base that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has made his headquarters for the crisis, red-shirted supporters of ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra regrouped near a central Bangkok bridge where they set up camp.
Leaders of the ‘red shirts’ were collecting a vial of blood from each supporter, which they intend to spill outside Mr Abhisit's office in what they are calling a symbolic shedding of blood for democracy.
The mainly rural ‘red shirts’ say they have been disenfranchised by the military, urban elite and royalists, who wear yellow shirts at protests and broadly back Mr Abhisit.
The twice-elected Mr Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and later sentenced in absentia to two years jail for graft.
He fled into exile shortly before his sentence was passed and lives mainly in Dubai, although thought now to be in Europe.
In a 40-minute address by telephone last night, during which he broke into song about his love for his supporters, the self-exiled former telecommunications tycoon urged the ‘red shirts’ to keep up their struggle.
‘The patience of the people is the heart of success,’ he said.
‘Do not lose heart yet. Be patient. It may be a little tough,’ he said, before urging Mr Abhisit's coalition partners to withdraw from the government ‘for the sake of democracy’.
Mr Thaksin's allies are likely to win the next election, which must be called by the end of next year.
