Court Confirms Village Minister's Influence in Serang Regent Election

Petitioners’ legal counsel while attending the ruling hearing for case No. 70/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Serang regent election results dispute on Monday (2/24/2025) in the plenary courtroom. Photo by MKRI/Panji

JAKARTA (MKRI) — On Monday, February 24, 2025, the Constitutional Court (MK) examined the evidence and facts regarding the allegations involving Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Kemendes PDT) Yandri Susanto, on the victory of candidate pair 2 (Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah-Muhammad Najib Hamas). As a result, for Case No. 70/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025, the Court identifies a conflict of interest between the said candidate pair and Minister Yandri.

Delivering the Court’s legal considerations, Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih explained that Minister Yandri and Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah, the regent candidate pair 2, are husband and wife. The Court confirmed that Minister Yandri was involved in activities where he instructed village heads to favor the said candidate pair.

The Court believes that village heads and village governments are institutionally under the coordination of Kemendes PDT, with Yandri as the minister, who is a politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN).

“Therefore, it is inevitable that a close link of interests was established between village heads and village government officials during the activities attended by the Minister of Villages and Disadvantaged Regions,” stated Justice Enny along with the other eight constitutional justices in plenary courtroom.

An event attended by Minister Yandri and Ratu was the Serang Regency Association of Indonesian Village Governments (APDESI) branch work meeting at Marbella Hotel Anyer on October 3, 2024. The Court found, based on witnesses’ testimonies, that village heads were instructed to support candidate pair 2 during the meeting.

The witness, Bojong Pandan Village Head Hulman, testified about the involvement of Minister Yandri. Hulman, who also serves as the secretary of the Serang Regency branch executive board of APDESI, admitted that after the branch work meeting, he had coordinated with the Candidate Pair 2 campaign team.

This clearly violates Article 71 paragraph (1) of Law No. 10 of 2016 on Pilkada Law. The Article states that “State officials, regional officials, state civil apparatus officials, members of the military/police, and village heads or other designations are prohibited from making decisions and/or actions that benefit or harm one of the candidate pairs”.

“This norm also applies to H. Yandri Susanto as the minister. As a state official, the minister is prohibited from making decisions and/or actions that benefit or harm one of the candidate pairs,” asserted Justice Enny.

“It cannot be denied that the actions of H. Yandri Susanto as Minister of Villages and Disadvantaged Regions may significantly influence village heads’ views as the subject who receives benefits from the activities and programs of the said ministry, leading to significant impacts to the actions that benefit or harm a particular candidate party,” added Justice Enny.

Justice Enny continued that village heads possess a significant role to influence voters in their respective villages, which can be seen as a benefit to candidate pair 2, Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah-Muhammad Najib Hamas.

The Court considers that Yandri’s actions or activities as a village minister, whether intentional or unintentional, affected the neutrality of village heads and officials. Considering the minister’s main duties and functions, it is reasonable to conclude that these actions are directly related to the interests of village heads.

“Where one of the candidates participating in the regional election has a marriage or family relationship with the minister in question, he should avoid activities and refrain from issuing policies that could affect the village officials neutrality,” asserted Justice Enny.

Despite the Serang Regency Bawaslu (Election Supervisory Agency) not issuing a recommendation on Minister Yandri's violation, the Court believes that a relationship was formed between regent candidate number 2 and Minister Yandri. This created a causal relationship that significantly influenced the village heads to side with the said candidate pair in the Serang regent election.

“This fact proves a special incident occurred in the 2024 Serang Regency Election that significantly affected the vote acquisition results,” said Justice Enny.

In addition, despite no evidence on the involvement of candidate number 2 as the Relevant Party, it cannot be denied that they benefited from the violations that occurred. The Court believes that the massive support from village heads had a significant influence on the final result of the Serang regent election.

“As such, in the 2024 Serang regent election, an election violation occurred which significantly benefited candidate pair number 2 as the leading candidate pair. This convinces the Court to annul the entirety of the certification of the 2024 Serang regent-vice regent election results under the Respondent’s Decree No. 2028 of 2024,” emphasized Justice Enny.

Delivering the verdict, Chief Justice Suhartoyo stated that the Court partially granted the Petitioners’ petition, and annulled the Serang Regency KPU Decree No. 2028 of 2024, dated December 4, 2024.

Furthermore, the Court orders the Serang Regency KPU to conduct a revote at all polling stations in Serang Regency based on the same final voters list (DPT), relocated final voters list (DPTh), and additional final voters list (DPTb) from the voting on November 27, 2024.

“In accordance with laws and regulations, [the revote] must be implemented within 60 days after the pronouncement of the a quo decision and the revote [results must be] certified and announced, without reporting to the Court,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo.

The Court also orders the Central KPU to supervise and coordinate with the Banten Province KPU and the Serang Regency KPU to implement this decision. The Court also orders the Central Bawaslu to supervise and coordinate with Banten Province Bawaslu and Serang Regency Bawaslu in the implementation of this verdict.

“[The Court] orders the Indonesian National Police and its ranks to secure the revote of Serang regent-vice regent in accordance with their authority,” Suhartoyo said.

The Petitioners argued that structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations had occurred in the Serang regent-vice regent election. They specifically highlighted the role of Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah, wife of Minister Yandri.

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Court Confirms Village Minister's Influence in Serang Regent Election