Georgia is deeply politically divided and its democratic progress could reverse in the wake of the “deeply flawed” presidential elections held late last year. That’s the view of Kurt Volker, who served as US ambassador to Nato during the five-day Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. Volker gave the warning at a conference in Washington, D.C. on September 23 after returning from a trip to Georgian capital Tbilisi.

Internal fights were making it harder for Georgia’s allies to help it overcome huge problems posed by the Russia-backed separatist breakaway regions, he added.

"There is a risk of backsliding. The presidential elections that took place last year were deeply flawed," Volker said, as quoted by RFE/RL.

On a positive note, Volker, who presently serves as US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations and as the executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, added that there was time for things to be straightened out.

“Georgia has an opportunity to get it right,” said Volker. As the general election was still a year away and a new prime minister had lately taken office, it “gives everybody an opportunity to take a breath and focus on a few things”, he added.

While visiting Tbilisi, Volker witnessed another round of anti-government rallies. Unlike the June 20-21 protests outside parliament, these demonstrations were, however, also aimed against the presidency.

The June protests saw demonstrators, irritated by a Russian MP being offered the speaker of parliament’s chair during an address to lawmakers, brutally dispersed by police. Several civilians were severely injured, with some losing eyes in a hail of rubber bullets. The protests took place amid a gradual deterioration of public confidence in the ruling party, Georgian Dream, headed by oligarch and ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Critics have concurred that the presidential elections were, as Volker put it—unlike most external observers who avoided the matter—“deeply flawed”, with Ivanishvili going to extraordinary lengths to get his favoured candidate over the line in the second round run-off vote, to beat the candidate backed by former president and self-exiled Mikheil Saakashvili. The outcome of the parliamentary elections next year is rather unpredictable, particularly given a recent National Democratic Institute (NDI) poll showing voters tending to not trust any party and rather anxious about the direction the country is taking.

Volker told his audience, which included Western policy advisers, officials, and analysts, that the US and Europe must warn Georgia’s politicians—both pro-government and members of the opposition—against descending into "tribalism" and encourage them to hold a clean general election.