Still, the upheaval proved that demonstrators struggling to overthrow Yingluck have the ability to disrupt the main vote next week, which the Election Commission also wants postponed.
Ruling party officials suggested over the weekend that they were willing to delay the ballot, but only if protests end and the main opposition party abandons its boycott.
There has been no sign yet that Yingluck's rivals would agree to any deal, however, and Sunday's unrest appeared likely to push the two sides further apart.
Suthida Sungkhapunthu, a 28-year-old office worker, turned back from one polling station after reading news of the day's mayhem on her phone.
“I saw this coming but I'm still quite disappointed,” she said, denouncing the protesters as “undemocratic” as she watched a mob surrounding her polling station a block away.
“It's my constitutional right” to vote, she said.
The protest movement, known as the People's Democratic Reform Committee, had pledged not to obstruct the poll, saying its supporters would only stand outside to express their views and urge people not to vote.
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