Georgia's ruling party won local elections Saturday and police fired tear gas and water cannons at anti-government protesters who tried to enter the presidential palace, as tens of thousands of people rallied to the opposition's call to save democracy.

The ruling populist Georgian Dream party Saturday faces its first electoral test since a disputed parliamentary poll a year ago plunged the Black Sea nation into turmoil and prompted Brussels to effectively freeze the EU-candidate country's accession process.

With nearly 75 percent of precincts reporting, the central election commission said Georgian Dream had secured municipal council majorities in every municipality, with more than 80 percent of the vote.

Ruling party candidates scored landslide wins in mayoral races in all cities, the commission said.

Ahead of the demonstration, authorities pledged a tough response to those it cast as seeking "revolution".

Waving Georgian and EU flags, tens of thousands flooded Tbilisi's Freedom Square for what organisers dubbed a "national assembly", an AFP reporter saw.

The normally low-key local elections have acquired high stakes after........

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