Assad to face two candidates in Syria election

Syrian President Bashar Assad

An official with Syria’s Supreme Constitutional Court said President Bashar Assad and two others will be candidates in coming June presidential elections.

Twenty-four candidates submitted bids to run in the June 3 election that Mr. Assad is widely expected to win.

The court’s spokesman, Majid Khadra, announced on Syrian state television on Sunday that only three applicants met requirements of the election law to run.

Mr. Assad will face Hassan bin Abdullah al-Nouri, a lawmaker from Damascus, and Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar, a lawmaker from the northern city of Aleppo.