LONDON — The citizens of Draguseni, Romania, were presented with a predicament on Sunday (June 5) when they had to decide who should lead their village of 2,500: The incumbent mayor, Mr Vasile Cepoi, or one of four challengers — two of whom were also named Vasile Cepoi.

This was not the first time Mr Cepoi, the mayor, was facing such familiar competition. In fact, electoral records showed that in all three of his successful bids since 2004, he faced at least one other Vasile Cepoi.

Vasile is a very common name in Romania, and Cepoi is a similarly common surname in Draguseni, a municipality in the rural northern region of Bucovina, in the eastern Carpathian Mountains.

Some residents there were confused by the lack of diversity, if not choice, in the mayoral race. A video posted online by the Romanian news channel Antena1 mocked some voters who appeared to have little idea which Cepoi was which, or what parties the homonymous contenders represented.

Since the first free elections were held two decades ago in Romania, fraud has been common, according to reports by international election observers. Candidates and their parties have offered small gifts of food, drink or cash to lure voters, or encouraged “electoral tourism” — paying voters to visit multiple polling stations on Election Day, stuffing ballot boxes for their preferred candidates.

Candidates for mayor in at least a quarter of Sunday’s major municipal races in Romania were under criminal investigation, mostly for allegations of corruption, according to reports by Digi24, a Romanian news channel.

In Draguseni, the challenges from two other Vasile Cepois raised the suspicion of some observers that the participation of similarly named candidates was not a coincidence.

Mr Cepoi, the incumbent, a member of the governing Social Democrat Party, said that he suspected that the Mr Cepoi from the People’s Movement Party and the Mr Cepoi from the National Liberal Party were deliberately trying to confuse voters and deny him another term.

In an effort to differentiate himself on the ballot, the mayor changed his name before the election to Vasile Lica Cepoi. He was re-elected with 82 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results from the Central Election Office. NEW YORK TIMES