diff --git a/.github/workflows/testrelease_binary.yml b/.github/workflows/testrelease_binary.yml
index ac9ca346..ae08741e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/testrelease_binary.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/testrelease_binary.yml
@@ -60,8 +60,6 @@ jobs:
           ls -l /opt/python/
           export PATH=/opt/python/${{ matrix.pythonpath }}/bin:$PATH
 
-          python -c "import setuptools;print('setuptools version', setuptools.__version__)"
-          pip3 install setuptools==67.4.0
           pip3 install auditwheel twine
           pip3 install urllib3==1.26.6    # use older version to avoid OpenSSL vesion issue
 
diff --git a/mfem/__init__.py b/mfem/__init__.py
index 8658dced..6bae478a 100644
--- a/mfem/__init__.py
+++ b/mfem/__init__.py
@@ -20,5 +20,5 @@ def debug_print(message):
 
     print(message)
 
-__version__ = '4.7.0rc4'
+__version__ = '4.7.0rc5'
 
diff --git a/mfem/_par/setup.py b/mfem/_par/setup.py
index 8240df93..f879469e 100644
--- a/mfem/_par/setup.py
+++ b/mfem/_par/setup.py
@@ -3,12 +3,17 @@
 """
 setup.py file for SWIG example
 """
-from distutils.core import Extension, setup
-import numpy
-import os
+
 import sys
+import os
+import numpy
+
 print('building paralel version')
 
+# this remove *.py in this directory to be imported from setuptools
+sys.path.remove(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])))
+from distutils.core import Extension, setup
+
 # first load variables from PyMFEM_ROOT/setup_local.py
 
 
diff --git a/mfem/_ser/setup.py b/mfem/_ser/setup.py
index 3fe1afbd..85eaafdc 100644
--- a/mfem/_ser/setup.py
+++ b/mfem/_ser/setup.py
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 import os
 import numpy
 
+# this remove *.py in this directory to be imported from setuptools
+sys.path.remove(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])))
 from distutils.core import Extension, setup