On Friday, the Thai capital braced for possible violence as anti-government activists launched what they hope will be one of the country’s biggest protests in an effort to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call new elections.

Called the Red Shirts because of their hallmark garb, leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship have vowed to keep their “million-man march” protest nonviolent. Demonstrators started meeting around the country Friday and plan to converge on the Thai capital on Sunday.

Two were people killed, more than 120 were injured, and buses were burned on major thoroughfares after the group’s last major protest in Bangkok last April deteriorated into rioting. The army was called in to quash the unrest.

The Red Shirts include followers of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other people who oppose the 2006 military coup that toppled him. They believe Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and other parts of the traditional Thai ruling class who were fearful of Thaksin’s popularity while in office in 2001-2006.

(article and photo source: AP)