Anti-government demonstrators led by protest monk Luang Pu Buddha Issara dumped 100 tonnes of unmilled rice outside Government Lottery Office (GLO) headquarters on Friday.
The protesters demanded that GLO either buy the rice or fix the lottery so that farmers owed money under the rice-pledging scheme had access to another source of cash.
Luang Pu, the abbot of Or Noi temple in Nakhon Pathom and core member of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), led protesters from their Chaeng Watthana rally site to the GLO on Friday morning.
"We want GLO to buy the rice from farmers for two million baht. You have 20 minutes to decide," the monk said through a loudspeaker outside the GLO headquarters in Nonthaburi.
Representatives of the GLO told the monk they would have to discuss his demand with their superiors before making a decision.
About 20 minutes later, Luang Pu ordered protesters to unload around 100 tonnes of unmilled rice from three large trucks outside the GLO head office.
"If you don't want to buy the rice, you should make sure that the winning lottery digits match with farmers' lottery tickets," Luang Pu told GLO officials.
The monk was referring to allegations that government officials fixed winning lottery tickets to correspond with the licence plate numbers of vehicles used by caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Photos and video by Apichit Jinakul