Rohidin Mersyah (born 9 January 1970) is an Indonesian politician who has served as governor of
Bengkulu
Bengkulu is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the former Bencoolen Residency area from the province of South Sumatra under Law No. 9 of 1967 and was fi ...
since December 2018.
Early life
Mersyah was born in the village of Gelumbang, in
Manna
Manna ( he, מָן, mān, ; ar, اَلْمَنُّ; sometimes or archaically spelled mana) is, according to the Bible, an edible substance which God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert during the 40-year period follow ...
,
South Bengkulu, on 9 January 1970 as the fifth child of nine. He completed his basic education in South Bengkulu, before studying
veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...
at
Gadjah Mada University
Gadjah Mada University ( jv, ꦈꦤꦶꦥ꦳ꦼꦂꦱꦶꦠꦱ꧀ꦓꦗꦃꦩꦢ; id, Universitas Gadjah Mada, abbreviated as UGM) is a Public university, public research university located in Sleman Regency, Sleman, Yogyakarta (special region) ...
.
Career
In 2010, Mersyah ran as a vice-regent candidate for the
South Bengkulu Regency
South Bengkulu ( id, Bengkulu Selatan) is a regency (Indonesia), regency of Bengkulu Province, Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra. It covers 1,186.10 km2, and had a population of 142,940 at the 2010 Census and 166,249 ay the 2020 Census.
Adminis ...
. Initially, him and the regent candidate Reskan Effendi lost the election with just 48.06% of votes, but following a lawsuit to the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
their opponent was disqualified as he had previously been jailed for murder and was hence ineligible as a candidate. He ran as a deputy gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 election, and won the election.
Bengkulu's governor following the election,
Ridwan Mukti, was arrested by the
Corruption Eradication Commission
Corruption Eradication Commission ( id, Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi), abbreviated as KPK, is an Indonesian government agency established to prevent and fight corruption in the country. Firli Bahuri, an active police general, is the current cha ...
in June 2017 due to alleged bribery. Mersyah was sworn in as full governor on 10 December 2018.
He was reelected as governor following the 2020 gubernatorial election.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mersyah, Rohidin
Living people
1970 births
Golkar politicians
People from Bengkulu
Mayors and regents of places in Bengkulu
Governors of Bengkulu
Gadjah Mada University alumni