Assad to face two candidates in Syria vote

Two candidates have been named by Syria's supreme court to challenge President Bashar al-Assad at the polls in June.

Syria will hold elections that are expected to return President Bashar al-Assad to office. (AAP)

President Bashar al-Assad is to face two challengers in Syria's June presidential election, which he is assured of winning.

"The supreme constitutional court announces ... the acceptance of candidacy bids registered by ... Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar, Hassan Abdallah al-Nuri and Bashar Hafez al-Assad," a court official said on Sunday.

Twenty-three candidates had initially registered to run against Assad but most did not meet criteria to run for office in a vote mocked by the opposition and the West as a "farce".

Both Hajjar and Nuri are largely unknown to the Syrian public.

Candidates whose bids were rejected have until May 7 to appeal the court's decision, said Majed al-Khadra of the constitutional court, whose statement was carried by state television.

While the election is the country's first multi-candidate vote, the rules effectively rule out any opponents to Assad's regime from running.

Among them is the stipulation that anyone who has lived outside Syria in the past decade is excluded, effectively barring most prominent opposition figures, who live in exile.

At the same time, the vote will only be held in areas under government control.

The election is being held amid a brutal civil war that has killed more than 150,000 people since March 2011 and made millions homeless.

The regime has barred from voting those refugees who left the country illegally.