Police in ex-Soviet Georgia on Sunday fired water cannons and tear gas on thousands of protesters demanding snap polls after the opposition accused the ruling party of rigging tightly-contested legislative elections.

Live television footage showed riot police intervening in the protest, firing water cannons without warning, after demonstrators threatened to blockade the building of Georgia's central election commission.

Earlier, some 45,000 opposition supporters had rallied outside Georgian parliament, denouncing alleged fraud in the October 31 polls. The ruling Georgian Dream party has flatly denied accusations of electoral fraud.