diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 16885c8..fd8c8e3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -247,11 +247,7 @@ ENABLE_CRYPT_KAT_GEN="no"
 # This way we just need one call to AC_PATH_PROGS to likely get a
 # suitable version of Python.  The version check afterwards is for
 # the case just a generic 'python3' or 'python' executable was found.
-PYTHON_CANDIDATE_VERSIONS="python3 python"
-
-for ver in `seq 6 1 10`; do
-  PYTHON_CANDIDATE_VERSIONS="python3.$ver $PYTHON_CANDIDATE_VERSIONS"
-done
+PYTHON_CANDIDATE_VERSIONS="${EPYTHON}"
 
 AC_PATH_PROGS([PYTHON], [$PYTHON_CANDIDATE_VERSIONS], [])