Complex sentence: It will be the first multi-candidate election in decades since the Ba'ath party came to power in a coup, though the two candidates running against the incumbent Assad are virtually unknown and by the Assad regime, and the election lacks any independant election monitoring.
Split into simpler sentences: It will be the first multi-candidate election in decades since the Ba'ath party came to power in a coup. The two candidates running against the incumbent Assad are virtually unknown, were choosen by the Assad regime, and the election lacks any independant election monitoring.