ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION).

STORY: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accompanied by his wife, Asma, on Tuesday (June 3) entered a polling station where they cast their ballots in a wartime election set to extend his rule.

State TV showed the couple at a Damascus-neighbourhood school surrounded by election staff in the polling station. People applauded as they voted.

Syrians went to the polls on Tuesday for a presidential election, that's expected to deliver an overwhelming victory for Assad but which his opponents have dismissed as a charade.

Rebel fighters, the political opposition in exile, Western powers and Gulf Arabs say no credible vote can be held in a country where swathes of territory are outside state control and millions of people have been displaced in the conflict, which grew from protests against Assad's rule.