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BANGKOK - Tens of thousands of red-shirted supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra were to rally in Bangkok on Sunday to demand the government step down, sparking a major security operation.
Riot police and soldiers were deployed outside government offices as part of a 50,000-strong security force sent out under a strict security law that was enacted amid fears that some demonstrators could trigger violence.
Bangkok police said 45,000 protesters had turned up at the rally site by Saturday night, after some 50,000 had arrived through checkpoints, mostly from the rural north, throughout the day.
The Red Shirts were to officially begin the rally at midday (0500 GMT) Sunday, dubbing it their "million man march".
Thousands of the protesters were seen Saturday holding their trademark foot-shaped clappers, and had blocked streets by a stage rigged up near government offices.
"We will declare our demands to the government, that it must step down and dissolve the House," Red Shirt Jatuporn Prompan said at the site on Saturday.
"If our demands are not met then we will step up our campaign on Monday but I can reassure everyone that it will be peaceful," he said.
The government has enacted the strict Internal Security Act for the demonstrations, allowing authorities to set up checkpoints, impose curfews and limit movements.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has refused to bow to the protesters' demands and warned the public not to be complacent about the potential for violence. He cancelled his own weekend trip to Australia because of the rally.
The government said it expected about 70,000 Red Shirts to attend, but the protesters have said the number will be several times higher.
The rallies come two weeks after Thailand's top court confiscated 1.4 billion US dollars of Thaksin's assets, and are the latest chapter in the country's political turmoil that began when Thaksin was toppled in a 2006 coup.
Thaksin, who has been living mostly in Dubai to escape a two-year jail term for corruption at home, has been encouraging his supporters to attend the rally using text messages and his Twitter page.
On Saturday he left his main base in Dubai to travel to Europe where he said he was meeting his two daughters.
The protest is set to be the biggest since the Red Shirts rioted in Bangkok in April last year, leaving two dead and scores injured.
The Red Shirts mainly represent Thailand's rural poor, who benefited from Thaksin's populist policies and say Abhisit's government is elitist, military-backed and has ignored their democratic rights.
Thaksin, by contrast, is loathed by the rival royalist "Yellow Shirts" backed by Bangkok's establishment, who accuse him of corruption and of lacking loyalty to the revered royal family.
Thirty-five countries have issued travel warnings for Thailand because of the protests, according to the country's tourism authority.
Analysts say the turnout on Sunday will be key to deciding whether the Red Shirts have any chance of ousting the government before Thailand's next polls, due in December 2011.
The Red Shirts have held a number of protests since Abhisit came to power in December 2008 after a court decision removed Thaksin's allies from government following an airport blockade by the Yellow Shirts.
- AFP/ls/ir
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