Thailand votes amid heavy security

Millions of Thailand people are voting in the general elections Sunday amid heavy security and concerns for possible violence and bloodshed due to anti-government protests, BBC reported.

Anti-government protesters said they would disrupt voting process and continued their campaign against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Yingluck voted soon after polls opened Sunday near her Bangkok home.

The prime minister, who won the last election in 2011, called for the elections to head off mass protests that began in November, 2013.

People, including opposition leaders took to the streets after her government tried to pass an amnesty law that would potentially have allowed her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, to return from exile.

Thaksin, a former prime minister who fled during a court case in 2008, is reviled by the protesters, who say he controls the government from abroad.

Security is heavy across Thailand, with vast areas under a state of emergency because of the protests.

According to BBC, security officials said about 130,000 personnel were deployed across Thailand Sunday, including 12,000 in Bangkok.

Polling stations opened at 08.00 a.m..