"Every polling station committee will count the paper receipts by hand," said Central Election Commission spokeswoman Stoyanka Balova on the "Sunday 150" show on Bulgarian National Radio. The point is to check the machine tally against the receipts issued.

The hand count goes into the station's record, which is then scanned along with the paper ballots at the regional commissions' counting centres. "But the official result comes from the machine's record," Balova said.

She said the hand count is there to keep the vote count open and honest. Balova expects the count to go faster and be more accurate this time round, since there are no preference votes in a presidential election.

Chairs of polling station committees will get 185 euros each, and members 160 euros. If the paperwork is in order, everyone on the committee gets an extra 15 euros on top.

The Central Election Commission has also built an app for a public register showing how money for media packages was spent. The register shows where a given candidate appeared, how much it cost, and whether it was a video, an interview or a banner ad.

Figures on money spent and new booking requests come in every day and are processed by commission staff. The register is updated every Tuesday on the commission's website.