ATHENS – The election of a pro-government candidate as Mayor of the Albanian seaside town of Himare to replace an ethnic Greek who said he was wrongly jailed on dubious charges drew skepticism from Greece, doubting the results.

Greece’s state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency ANA, citing diplomatic sources not named, said there’s skepticism over the election to replace Fredi Beleri, jailed for two years after being convicted of buying votes.

He said that was a sham and a ruse to put control of the town in the hands of allies of Prime Minister Edi Rama as Albania’s coast has become more popular with tourists and bringing lucrative development opportunities.

“The complaints expressed by members of the Greek ethnic minority in Albania concerning the conditions in which the repeat municipal elections in the Himare municipality were held, especially those concerning the tampering with the population of the electorate and denying the constitutional right to vote to thousands of Himare citizens on the pretext that their ID had expired, raise serious doubts about the unimpeachability of the process,” the sources said.

They noted that democratic values and the European acquis demand that Albanian authorities assess and reply to all reports concerning the integrity of the elections with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis earlier saying Greece could bloc Albania’s hopes of joining the European Union.

Beleri was also elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Greece’s ruling New Democracy and allowed out of jail to be sworn in also came to Athens to meet Mitsotakis before going back to prison.

Opposition groups reported that some 6,000 voters were unable to cast ballots on Sunday because their IDs had expired, a situation exacerbated by the lack of provisions for extending IDs, unlike in previous elections.

“Claims by the Greek minority about manipulation of the voter list and denial of the right to vote due to expired ID cards raise serious doubts about the process,” sources not named told SKAI TV.

Ruling Socialist Party candidate Vangjel Tavo won with 58.62 percent of the vote and he thanked Rama who Beleri said rigged the election by preventing holders of old identity cards from voting.