[4] After the severe unrest of 2006, the Australian-led International Stabilization Force (ISF) and the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) had restored peace and order in the country.

An assassination attempt on February 11, 2008, against President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão resulted in the death of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado.

[5] The country had largely stabilized, but there were sporadic clashes between various martial arts groups and youth gangs [de], during which houses were also burned down, most recently in Comoro and in 2011 in Zumalai and Luro.

The reform wing of Fretilin, led by Deputy Prime Minister José Luís Guterres, split off as Frenti-Mudança.

In exchange, the western-born PD MP Lucas da Costa stood in the 2012 presidential elections, in which his eastern-born party leader Fernando de Araújo also contested.

[13] Xanana Gusmão and leading members of the PSD have been at loggerheads in recent years, with party leader Zacarias da Costa even threatening to resign as foreign minister by text message in 2010.

The former PSD secretary-general had lost the 2008 election to party leader Zacarias da Costa and subsequently founded the PDN.

According to the share of the total votes, parties and coalitions receive seats in parliament, which are filled according to the order on the electoral list.

[9] All 65 members of the National Parliament were elected from a single nationwide constituency by party-list proportional representation voting.

[23] The PSD placed Lúcia Lobato second on its list before her conviction, which brought the party public criticism from its former leader Mário Viegas Carrascalão.

[25] The CNE again set an ultimatum, but the groups around party leader Cornelio Gama and General Secretary Reis Kadalak could not agree on a common list, which led to the exclusion of UNDERTIM from the elections on 1 June.

[14] Despite the lack of polls, analysts assumed that either Fretilin or CNRT would lead a coalition government after the election, even though both parties had set themselves the goal of an absolute majority.

[30] The election campaign was focused on economic issues, particularly the question of what should be done with the country's oil fund, worth $10.5 billion.

[2] Other focuses in the election campaign were the fight against corruption, the development of infrastructure and ensuring peace and stability in the country.

[31] The CNRT campaign pledged to increase the amount of money the fund contributed to the state budget beyond the existing 3% limit and to attract foreign loans for infrastructure improvement projects,[32] promising long-term investment in roads and electricity and water supplies.

Fretilin opposed CNRT's policies on foreign loans and changes to the oil fund spending, but ran a campaign focused on raising levels of income and education.

[31] The PD, given its mainly young constituency, promised scholarships for students, while the CNRT relied on its charismatic leader Gusmão and his merits in the freedom struggle and in his last years as prime minister.

For example, Fretilin leader Francisco Lu-Olo Guterres visited the CNRT party congress and demonstratively embraced Xanana Gusmão.

Companies that had paid several hundred thousand US dollars to the party were said to have received lucrative contracts from the government.

On 23 June, two men were arrested by the police for throwing stones at cars belonging to a Fretilin campaign group.

[46][47] Fretilin announced that instead of holding a demonstration march as a final event in Dili, they would distribute flowers to the people on the last day of the election campaign as a sign of peace.

In some polling stations, there were irritations regarding the positioning of voting booths, and election observers sporadically registered voters who had not yet reached the minimum age of 17.

[52] The Friendship Observer Mission (FOM), which consisted of various East Timorese and foreign members, listed several problems and violations in its report.

While FOM recognises that these are part of the country's folklore, they see a fundamental problem with the appearance of armed people in election campaigns.

CNRT General Secretary Babo Soares announced that after the party congress on 15 July, Fretilin and PD would be invited to coalition talks.

[59] The non-governmental organisation La'o Hamutuk spoke out against the idea of a government of national unity made up of CNRT and Fretilin.

[60] In contrast, the veterans' organization CPD-RDTL called for an agreement between CNRT and Fretilin, saying their leaders both came from the common front of the independence movement and could therefore form a joint government.

[62] Fretilin MP and former Prime Minister Estanislau da Silva was calm in the face of the CNRT party congress' decision.

[65] In Hera, Armindo Pereira Alves, a student and Fretilin supporter from Uato-Lari, was shot dead by a police officer.

[73] But the head of the Australian election observers Damien Kingsbury also blamed the unrest on the disappointment of Fretilin supporters who had believed in the success of the campaign to return to government.