12 COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT [Factual] circumstances as established by [the first-instance court] refute the allegations of inequality of the political parties and clear preference for one of them in so far as access to the mass media is concerned”. The appellate court also agreed with the other findings of the firstinstance court. II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW AND PRACTICE A. Composition of the State Duma 38. The State Duma is composed of 450 members. At the material time 225 members of the State Duma were elected from the lists of candidates put forward nationwide by the political parties. Those seats were distributed in proportion to the percentage of votes obtained by those political parties which had cleared a threshold of 5 per cent of votes. The remaining 225 seats were contested in “single mandate electoral districts” (one-seat constituencies), on a majority basis in two rounds, with candidates being put forward by the political parties or independently. B. Legislation on media coverage of the 2003 elections 39. On 12 June 2002 the Law on basic principles of elections and referendums was enacted (Law no. 67-FZ, the Basic Guarantees Act). It was amended on 27 September 2002 and 23 June 2003. Further, the 2003 elections were governed by the Duma Elections Act of 20 December 2002, amended on 23 June 2003 (Law no. 175-FZ, the Duma Elections Act). Media coverage of elections was also regulated by the Coverage by the State Media of the Activities of State Bodies Act (Federal Law No. 7-FZ of 13 January 1995, the Media Coverage Act). Certain provisions of the law on media coverage of elections were developed in the documents of the CEC, in particular in Decree no. 38/354-4, and interpreted by the Constitutional Court of Russia in its judgment of 30 October 2003 no. 15-P (for more details, see below). 40. Pursuant to section 6 of the Media Coverage Act, the State-owned audio-visual mass media were obliged to disseminate information about the activities of State bodies and officials, in particular reporting on the decisions and acts of the President of the Russian Federation provided for by the Constitution, his declarations and announcements, press conferences and other activities “which are of public significance”. 41. Sections 59 and 60 of the Duma Elections Act proclaimed the principle of equal access of candidates to the media, including the audiovisual media. The law distinguished between “informing” the population in