Georgian riot police have used pepper spray and water cannons to drive demonstrators away from the presidential palace in Tbilisi as the opposition staged a large demonstration on a day of local elections.

The governing Georgian Dream party said it had clinched victory in every municipality across the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people in an election boycotted by the two largest opposition blocs.

Shortly before polls closed, a group of demonstrators attempted to force entry to the presidential palace, a Reuters witness said, after opposition figures called for a "peaceful revolution" against GD, which they accuse of being pro-Russian and authoritarian.

Georgia's pro-Western opposition has been staging protests since October last year, when GD won a parliamentary election that

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