Tests conducted on Selangor and Perak state assemblypersons' online responsiveness see DAP reps coming on top.

Held from March 16 to March 30, this is the third such exercise conducted by independent NGO Kuasa, after previous rounds in March 2014 and Sept 2014.

State representatives were contacted on email, Facebook and Twitter via third party accounts for assistance in community requests.

"In many instances, DAP reps replied to requests for help within hours, and in some cases within minutes," said Kuasa chief executive Praba Ganesan ( left ) in a press conference today.

Out of the 56 assemblypersons in Selangor, 14 out of 15 DAP reps replied to community requests for help, with the sole DAP rep eventually responding after a reminder.

DAP's Kinrara assemblyperson Ng Sze Han ( right ) was praised for his perfect scores for all three rounds of tests conducted since last year.

For Perak DAP assemblypersons, 15 out of 17 of them had responded to queries made via email, Facebook messages and Twitter.

When asked why the results saw DAP reps performing well, Praba said it might be due to DAP having been the opposition for a longer period of time.

"Maybe it is the culture within the party to respond," he added.

Far cry

Meanwhile, Perak's latest results in general were a far cry compared to the first test last year.

This time around, the state recorded an impressive 69 percent, where 41 out of 59 assemblypersons replied promptly on at least one of the three communication channels. 

The state only found 24 percent of assemblypersons responding to such queries in the first test.

In the latest test, of the 18 who did not reply promptly, four had never replied to any electronic contact in the three exercises carried out since last year.

Nevertheless, 14 of the state's assemblypersons had replied to all communication promptly.

PKR's Teja assemblyperson Chang Lih Kang ( left ) was praised as he still managed to reply on all fronts and even followed up on the complaints although he was arrested during the middle of the exercise.

As for Selangor assemblypersons in general, three had never replied to any electronic contact in the three rounds of tests.

However, 10 assemblypersons had replied to all communication promptly over all their channels.

Meanwhile, Praba said it was understandable that most reps are too busy and get too many email and messages on a daily basis.

As such, the NGO proposed an annual budget of RM30,000 per constituency to hire a person to monitor the respective assemblypersons' social media accounts.

Staff of executive councillors should also assist in providing communication support.

"Posting email addresses on official state websites and not responding to emails sent to those listed addresses does not reflect well on the exco and should be the job of the staff," said Praba.