Minister Yandri Proven to be Involved in Winning, MK Orders PSU in Serang Pilbub

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Constitutional Court annulled the victory of the candidate pair for Regent and Deputy Regent of Serang, candidate number 2, Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah and Muhammad Najib Hamas, and ordered a re-vote to be held. The Constitutional Court found active involvement by the Minister of Villages and Underdeveloped Regions Development, Yandri Susanto, in facilitating the support of village heads for the candidate pair number 2.

The ruling was read during the hearing on the 2024 Regional Election results dispute at the Constitutional Court building, Jakarta, Monday (24/2/2025). Although the victory of the pair Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah-Muhammad Najib Hamas was annulled, their participation in the Serang Regency Regional Election was not revoked. Therefore, the re-voting (PSU) will still be contested by two candidate pairs, namely Andika Hazrumy-Nanang Supriatna and Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah-Najib Hamas.

Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Suhartoyo, who presided over the session, stated that the Constitutional Court found strong evidence that Yandri, the husband of the regent candidate Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah, attended and organized activities that led to massive support from village heads for candidate pair number 2, Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah-M. Najib Hamas.

"The Court believes that the relationship between Candidate for Regent Number 2 and Yandri Susanto as the Minister of Villages and Underdeveloped Regional Development, within reasonable limits of reasoning, has created a causal relationship that ultimately resulted in the massive partiality of village heads in the 2014 Serang regent and deputy regent election," said Constitutional Judge Enny Nurbaningsih while reading the considerations of the decision on the Serang Regency Regional Election dispute.

The Constitutional Court believes that this includes incidents or specific conditions in the Serang Regency Regional Election that significantly affect the vote results.

According to the Constitutional Court (MK), given his wife's position as a candidate for regent, the Minister of Villages should avoid activities or actions, especially issuing policies, that could affect the neutrality of village officials. One such measure is by refraining from participating in activities conducted within the Serang Regency area from the time the candidate pair for the Serang Regency regional election is determined until the election stages are completed.

The Village Minister should avoid activities or actions, let alone issuing policies, which could influence the neutrality of village officials.

However, based on the facts of the trial, the Minister of Villages has actually organized or attended activities in which there were statements that were in the nature of asking or directing village heads to support his wife, candidate pair number 2. In fact, village heads and village government are positions that are institutionally under the coordination of the Ministry of Villages and PDT, whose main duties are carried out by Yandri.

"Therefore, it is unavoidable that there is a close link of interests between the village heads and village government officials with the activities attended by the Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions. As the Court has considered above, the statement of support by the village head for Candidate Pair Number 2 is clearly a form of election violation as regulated in Article 71 paragraph (1) of Law 10/2016," said Enny.

One of the events attended by Mendes Yandri and Ratu was the working meeting of the Serang Regency branch of the Association of Indonesian Village Governments (Apdesi) at the Marbella Anyer Hotel on October 3, 2024. In the event, referring to the statements of witnesses, the Constitutional Court found facts regarding the support of village heads for candidate pair number 2.

The Constitutional Court stated that the violations caused the bias of village heads that occurred massively in a number of villages spread across sub-districts in Serang Regency. Therefore, the Court believes that a series of violations have fundamentally damaged the purity of voters' votes.

Therefore, the Constitutional Court also ordered a re-vote to be held in all polling stations in Serang Regency. However, the Constitutional Court did not disqualify candidate pair number 2 because the violation was not directly committed by the candidate pair.

The Constitutional Court also emphasized the need for more intensive supervision of the neutrality of village heads and village officials and parties related to the implementation of regional elections.