Feuding Bar Association Sets Date for Exams

Members of the divided Cam­bo­dian Bar Association’s executive council set aside their differences long enough to set dates for exams at the Lawyers Train­ing Center, of­ficials said Wednes­day.

Council members met on Sept 1 and decided that graduating law students will take their final ex­ams on Sept 19 and 20, while the en­trance exam for new law students will be on Oct 27, said Ky Tech, who has been acting as the council’s president.

The bar council has been split since incumbent Ky Tech challenged the results of the Oct 16 presidential election in which lawyer Suon Visal defeated him.

The case is before the Su­preme Court for the second time after the Appeals Court twice ruled in Ky Tech’s favor.

Ky Tech said several of Suon Visal’s supporters who sit on the 19-member bar council attended the Sept 1 meeting after previous at­tempts to meet quorum were un­suc­cessful.

One of those supporters, Chiv Song Hak, confirmed he was at the meeting. He said his attendance did not signal support for Ky Tech but was intended to help the students.

Suon Visal could not be reach­ed for comment.

The move comes after months of warnings from international development agencies and bar associations that they would not support the center if council members could not cooperate.

The Japan International Coop­er­ation Agency’s assistance agree­ment with the bar finished at the end of August and while it has been extended for now, JICA’s As­sistant Resident Representative Emi Ai­zawa said it was being re­viewed.

“We believe that this is a sign that the bar council members are coming together to resolve the situation,” Aizawa wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. “We are waiting to hear formally…about the sche­d­ule of the [Lawyers Training Cen­ter] so that we can consider our assistance in concrete terms,” she ad­ded.

Kenneth Anderson of the Amer­ican Bar Association also welcomed the news.

 

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