As Reformer Exits, Who Will Lead Iran? ; Iranians Go to the Polls Friday to Choose a Successor to President Mohammad Khatami

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The supreme leader of Iran calls it a "religious duty" to vote in Friday's presidential election.

But that declaration, issued by Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, is one of the few nods to Islam in an election that caps a period of extraordinary political change here. Though outgoing President Mohammad Khatami is widely chastised and even despised today by friend and foe alike, his eight-year tenure and its agenda of reconciling Islam with democracy now shapes every aspect of Iranian life.

Mr. Khatami's legacy is often overshadowed by the titanic struggle in Iran between those who demand change and those who won't accept it - loosely, Iran's reformists and its …