23:12
Tieng Anh Vui
Millions of voters across Iran are due to cast their ballots in the country's presidential elections.
Although all six candidates are seen as conservatives, one of them, cleric Hassan Rowhani, has been reaching out to the reformists in recent days.
The election will decide a successor to outgoing leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
His eight years in power have been characterised by economic turmoil and Western sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
Ayatollah's call
Polls across Iran are due to open at 08:00 local time (03:30 GMT) and close at 18:00 (13:30 GMT). Some 50m people are eligible to cast their ballots.
The past week brought a surprising change to what otherwise had looked like being a predictable election, the BBC's Richard Galpin reports.
Mr Rowhani has been attracting increasing attention, speaking publicly about the need to re-engage with the West, our correspondent says.
Iranian presidential elections
- Six candidates running
- Race is seen as contest between Ayatollah Ali Khamenei' loyalists and moderate reformers
- About 50 million eligible voters
- If no candidate wins 50.1%, run-off held on 21 June
The surge of support for him came after Mohammad Reza Aref, the only reformist candidate in the race, announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing his candidature on the advice of the pro-reform ex-President Mohammad Khatami.
Mr Rowhani now has the endorsement of two ex-presidents, Mr Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was disqualified from the race by the powerful Guardian Council.
However, Mr Rowhani faces a tough challenge from hardline candidates, including top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Tehran's mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
The remaining candidates are conservatives close to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Ahead of the election, he called on all Iranians to vote.
"Whoever is elected, if he enjoys a strong and overwhelming vote, he will be able to stand up against enemies and aggressors more properly," Ayatollah Khamenei's website quoted him as saying.
Friday's election is the first since 2009, when protesters took to the streets in anger at the results which they said had been rigged in favour of Mr Ahmadinejad.
But the disqualification Mr Rafsanjani in May finally left supporters of the post-2009 liberal movement divided about whether to bother voting in the election at all.
No foreign observers will be monitoring the poll, and there have also been concerns that media coverage in the run-up was unfair.
Many reform newspapers have been shut down, access to the internet and foreign broadcasters restricted, and journalists detained.
On Thursday, the BBC accused the Iranian authorities of putting "unprecedented levels of intimidation" on BBC employees' families.
It said Iran had warned the families of 15 BBC Persian Service staff that they must stop working for the BBC or their lives in London would be endangered.
Tehran has so far made no comment on the allegation.
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