In June 2016 ten official executive committees’ web-sites were monitored by Our House. Among the examined web-sites were the web-site of the Executive Committees in Minsk city, five cities of oblast centre, and four towns of oblast subordinance. This was to identify how many representatives of the City/Town Councils of Deputies have the information about their e-mail contacts available on the web.

Our Rating according to the results of the monitoring

There are 382 local deputies elected to represent interests of people in 389 constituencies of the 10 largest urban entities in Belarus. These entities are Minsk, Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Grodno, Brest, Bobruisk, Baranovichi, Pinsk, and Novopolotsk. They are the ten largest urban entities of Belarus.

51 persons out of 382 deputies of the City/Town Councils of Deputies published their e-mail addresses on the official web-sites of the City/Town Executive Committees with the purpose of being ‘contacted additionally’ by the electorate. This makes 13% of all the urban deputies.

The absolute leader of this chart is Mogilev City Councils of Deputies: 38 deputies have their e-mail addresses accessible to the public. This is out of total of 38 deputies on this council, that is, 100% of the deputies.

Number two on this list is Bobruisk Town Councils of Deputies: 9 deputies out of 36 persons. The last among the three leaders is Gomel City Councils of Deputies with 4 deputies out of 40.

The remaining seven urban councils, including their chairpersons and deputy chairpersons, are not in a hurry to be reached by e-mail.

Among the 51 e-mail users are two chairpersons/ deputy chairpersons of the City Councils of Deputies. Their approach is an example for other local deputies; it sets certain standards of being more open and approachable.

Why one would need for a deputy to have a work e-mail?

E-mail is good, first of all, for the voters as it is one more way to contact local deputies in addition to individual appointments that usually take place as often as once a month. It is also a good way of communication when the deputy is busy or absent due to a business trip.

Some people might find this idea of deputies’ e-mail strange. Our House, however, assures that e-mail address of our local representative available to public is convenient, reliable, and handy and keeps pushing this idea as a part of ‘People’s Deputy’ campaign.

Here is a view of one of an Our House activist regarding the usefulness of the e-communication with their local deputy in their experience:

‘On the 17^th of February 2015 I’ve contacted my local representative with a request to make his e-mail contact information public. Mr. Igor Korotkevich took little time to think about my request and decided to satisfy it. Thus his e-mail address was published on the Gomel City Executive Committee web-site. Over a year now we exchange information, share documents, inform each other about our plans over e-mail. I send him official requests and appeals as attachments, notify him about issues and support my arguments by photos and scanned documents. He, in his turn, sends me his official responses in the electronic format.’