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LACK OF INTERNAL DEMOCRACY UNDERCUTS COHESION
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¶4. (C) The lack of internal democracy is another factor
undermining the integrity of the bloc, ANC contacts tell us.
Decisions are made solely by LTP and formalized in the
so-called "political council," which has essentially no
leverage in the decision-making process. One prominent ANC
insider told PolOff, for example, that before LTP gives a
major speech, he is loath to share it with any of his
colleagues, and rarely seeks feedback. Two other ANC leaders
grumbled to PolOff in mid-December that they opposed LTP's
refusal to take up the seats he won in the Yerevan city
council, which was established at the end of May following a
disputed election. They both fumed that even though the
election was neither free nor fair, "we should be involved in
(Armenia's) political processes, not always outside of them."
¶5. (C) We also hear from ANC contacts that LTP assigns the
political coordination of the bloc to individuals who have no
authority with the leaders of the bloc's member parties, a
practice that also breeds discontent. Armen Martirossian, a
member of parliament and one of the leaders of the rival
opposition Heritage Party, separately told PolOffs that LTP
fears giving any management control to any of the ANC
parties, lest the stronger, more opinionated leaders go
behind LTP's back in an effort to marginalize him.
Martirossian stated that LTP's need for absolute fealty from
followers who will silently do as they are told was one of
the reasons his party could not cooperate with the ANC. "He
wanted to do the same with Heritage, integrate us into his
amorphous conglomerate, have us assimilate, and lose our
identity. That's why we didn't join them," Martirossian said,
referring to Heritage's well-publicized refusal to join the
ANC in the run-up to Yerevan's May 31 city council election.
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