Stoyanka Balova, spokeswoman for the Central Election Commission (CIK), said at a briefing that all polling stations opened for the second round of the presidential and vice-presidential election.

Power cuts hit several municipalities and villages. Voting machines are running on batteries, and some places are voting on paper ballots. The commission had received no complaints or reports by the time of the briefing.

Slivnitsa lost power across the whole municipality in the morning, but the problem has been fixed. The machines ran on batteries. In one polling station the battery died, and voters there switched to paper.

Four polling stations in the village of Malo Konare and two in Silistra have no electricity. Two villages in Pazardzhik region have also switched to paper ballots. In Mostitsa and Chereshnitsa, in Kardzhali region, the power failed after a fault and has not come back, so the machines are running on batteries.

Polling stations in Bulgaria opened at 7am and close at 8pm. A station with voters still queuing outside stays open until 9pm at the latest. Abroad, the hours are the same in local time. In the US, voting ends at 5pm at the latest.

Members of polling station commissions have been replaced since Wednesday. Nearly 60 of them were in the 24th regional election commission in Sofia, the most of any area. Members were also replaced in Vratsa, Gabrovo, Lovech, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Haskovo and Targovishte. Balova said this did not stop election day from starting on time and normally.