"If there is a coup, or the election doesn't happen, then it definitely becomes an armed war," said Ko Tee.
If anyone doubted the abyss into which Thailand could be heading, Ko Tee - who has been accused of orchestrating grenade attacks on anti-government marches in the Thai capital - is the living proof.
"I want there to be lots of violence to put an end to all this," said the red shirt co-ordinator.
"I'm bored with speeches.
"It's time to clean the country, to get rid of the elite, all of them."
Nine people have died and hundreds have been injured in small-scale clashes between the red shirts and their opponents since the current phase of anti-government demonstrations commenced in November.
There are increasing signs that those attacks are the prelude to a conflict that could be far more deadly than the battles between red shirts and the military in Bangkok in 2010 that killed 90 people.
With the opposition Democrat Party boycotting the poll on Sunday, in the knowledge that it will almost certainly lose it by a big margin, and the constitutional court ruling the election can be legally postponed, Thailand is split along political and class lines that threaten to overwhelm its fragile democracy.
Those divisions pit the rural poor of the north and northeast of the country, who overwhelmingly support Pheu Thai, against the metropolitan middle class, the traditional ruling class and the Democrat Party's supporters in their stronghold of southern Thailand.
The red shirts regard Yingluck as the head of a democratically-elected government whose populist policies have done more to benefit them than any previous administration.
For the anti-government protesters, Yingluck is just the puppet of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister.
He was overthrown by a military coup in 2006 and fled into exile two years later to avoid trial on corruption charges.
Thaksin was the first Thai leader to grasp the potential for winning support from the millions of people who live in poverty in the Thai countryside, by providing them with subsidised health care and student loans.
His critics accuse him of buying the votes of the poor and using his power to line the pockets of his family and associates, and of disloyalty to Thailand's monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
As the anti-Thaksin forces, known as the yellow shirts, have maintained their presence on the streets, a siege mentality has taken hold among the red shirt groups.
Almost all are convinced that Yingluck faces the same fate as her brother.
Thailand has endured 18 coups or attempted coups since the end of absolute rule by the monarchy in 1932.
Many Thais believe the protest leaders want the military to step in once again to resolve the present crisis.
"I think there will be a coup. It's the only way the elite can maintain their power," said Sabina Cha, a red shirt leader in Khon Kaen province in northeast Thailand, a heartland of the group.
Phutthiphong Khamhaengphon, the head of security for Khon Kaen's red shirts, said if there is a coup "of course I'll go to Bangkok and fight".
He added: "Millions of us will go ... If necessary, it will be like the Vietcong fighting the Americans in Vietnam: a guerrilla war."
Yingluck's support runs deep in the northeast, where just under a third of the country's 67 million people live and Pheu Thai holds almost every parliamentary seat.
Tongkoon Tongmee, 55, a farmer in the region, said that before Thaksin, "the people in the countryside were forgotten".
