Bangkok ? Anti-government protesters started donating their own blood today as part of a plan to splatter the Thai government headquarters in a symbolic sacrifice to press their demands for new elections.

Hundreds of red-shirted demonstrators formed long lines to have their blood drawn by nurses, a day after their leaders vowed to collect 1 million cubic centimeters of blood — the equivalent of 1,000 standard soft drink bottles — to spill at Government House by this evening.

As many as 100,000 so-called Red Shirt protesters converged Sunday on the Thai capital to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agree to dissolve parliament by midday Monday. Abhisit refused and blanketed the capital in security, but said his government was open to listening to what else the protesters have to say.

Frustrated, the protest leaders announced the “blood sacrifice,” a tactic slammed by the Red Cross as wasteful and unhygienic since diseases like hepatitis and HIV-AIDS can be spread if needles are reused.