After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the adoption of a new constitution in 1992, the president was indirectly elected by a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Czech Republic.

[6][7] The 2008 presidential election, which narrowly reelected Václav Klaus after several attempts, however was criticized for the appearance of political deal-making and allegations of corruption.

[10] In September 2011, an amendment was submitted to the Chamber of Deputies for a second official reading, during which the Communist Party (KSČM) tried to reject the bill by sending it back into the review process, but the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), also part of the opposition, did not support the Communists' motion,[10] and allowed the bill to go ahead with certain changes, including limits on presidential power and penal immunity.

[1] The law was scheduled to take effect on 1 October 2012,[needs update][12] after which Senate President Milan Štěch was due to set a date for the election, following discussions with the Ministry of the Interior.

[1] In order to be a candidate, an individual needs to gather 50,000 signatures from citizens or the support of twenty deputies or ten senators.

[1] The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) held primary elections in July 2012 to choose their candidate, selecting former president of the Senate Přemysl Sobotka over MEP Evžen Tošenovský.

[9] Vladimír Franz appears insignificant in agency surveys but in November he was the obvious favorite of opinion polls of several different popular news servers and media (Aktuálně.cz,[19] Reflex,[20] iDnes.cz[21]) as well as of so-called "students' elections"[22] in all regions and all types of secondary schools.

It ordered that Bobošíková must be registered as a candidate, and rejected the complaints of Dlouhý and Okamura, as even after correcting the error in computation their number of valid signatures still fails to meet the quorum.

[44] Zeman and Fischer were leading in the polls, but Schwarzenberg's campaign ended on a higher note with a crowd of about 10,000 people at a rally in Prague.

We'll start from scratch for the second round;" Schwarzenberg said of his campaign that he would make the Czech Republic "a successful country."

[48] Zeman's Party of Civic Rights started petition campaign for direct election on 29 June 2011.

[55] His presidential bid received support from LEV 21 and some politicians of Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD).

Švejnar himself was at the time waiting if he receives support of Czech Social Democratic Party[57][58][59] Miloš Zeman started gathering signatures on 21 March 2012 when he launched his presidential campaign.

[67] Candidate of Czech Social Democratic Party Jiří Dienstbier Jr. stated on the other hand that his campaign will cost tens of million Korunas.

Jan Švejnar who was originally considered the main rival of Fischer was losing in polls due to his indecisiveness.

Tomio Okamura started to gather signatures at the time[75] On 14 September 2012, Jan Fischer officially launched his campaign.

Táňa Fischerová and Pavel Kořán were close to the number while Klára Samková and Ladislav Jakl was unlikely get enough signatures.

Miloš Zeman, Jan Fischer, Vladimír Franz, Zuzana Roithová, Tomio Okamura, Táňa Fischerová, Vladimír Dlouhý and Jana Bobošíková gathered over 50,000 signatures while Jiří Dienstbier, Přemysl Sobotka and Karel Schwarzenberg received parliamentary nomination.

[97][98] It was suggested that members of his family collaborated with Nazis, most notably by the son of the Czech President, Václav Klaus Jr.

[101] In a leaked text message to a friend, President Klaus wrote that if Karel Schwarzenberg won the election, he would consider emigration.

[103] In the first round, he received the majority of support by voters in Bohemian regions and in some of the biggest Czech cities, such as Prague, Brno, and Plzeň.

Miloš Zeman, a former successful politician and Social Democratic prime minister, announced his comeback and the intention to run in the election in February 2012.

[104] He narrowly won the first round, supported mainly by voters from industrial regions such as North Bohemia and Silesia, and smaller towns and villages.

He has been criticized for the opaque funding of his campaign; the media pointed to his special relationships with controversial business subjects and lobbyists, such as Miroslav Šlouf and the Russian oil company LUKoil.

During the pre-election debates, Zeman had to face questions about connections between his former chief advisor Šlouf and the alleged mafia kingpin František Mrázek or about a discrediting campaign against his former colleague, Minister Petra Buzková.

On 22 January, the newspaper Mladá fronta DNES reported that the "massive negative campaign" of Miloš Zeman and his team won him popularity in the online media, while Schwarzenberg's supporters have a majority on social sites, such as Facebook.

[107] Some of the commentators and politologists pointed to growing polarization of the society, which was also noted by some of the foreign media, such as The New York Times.

[109] "Truth and love have finally prevailed over lies and hatred", stated the outgoing President Klaus, ironically paraphrasing the renowned Czech statesman (and political opponent) Václav Havel.

According to the survey Zeman was able to gain votes of left-wing supporters of other candidates namely Jan Fischer and Jiří Dienstbier Jr. Schwarzenberg on the other hand a little exhausted his electoral base in the first round and lost some supporters during a debate about Beneš decrees and his membership in Petr Nečas' Cabinet.

[122] During the second round, in the presence of journalists, Karel Schwarzenberg registered an invalid vote by forgetting to insert his paper into the required stamped envelope.