World Bulletin/News Desk

Kuwaiti authorities on Friday terminated the contract of an Egyptian mosque imam who during a Friday sermon questioned the results of Egypt's just-concluded presidential polls.

"The [Kuwaiti] Religious Endowments Ministry has suspended Sayed Ibrahim Abu Halima and decided to terminate his contract and expel him for violating ministry regulations," ministry official Walid al-Shuaib told reporters.

According to al-Shuaib, Abu Halima broached the issue of the Egyptian elections during his sermon at Kharneej Mosque.

"After hearing a recording of the sermon, the authorities confirmed that Abu Halima had said that the presidential elections in an Arab country had been rigged due to low turnout and bias [towards a particular candidate] on the part of supervising judges," al-Shuaib said.

The remarks, al-Shuaib said, had angered worshipers who asked the imam not to discuss politics.

According to Kuwaiti mosque regulations, imams are prohibited from talking politics and should stick to an official sermon provided by the Religious EndowmentsMinistry.

The incident came two days after preliminary results showed former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi winning a resounding victory in Egypt's presidential election.

Results provided by 13,893 polling stations across Egypt showed al-Sisi winning some 23.5 million votes, while his competitor, leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, won only 791,153, or 3.3 percent of the total, according to an Anadolu Agency tally.

The vote, which wrapped up on Wednesday, comes as part of an army-imposed transitional roadmap unveiled last July following the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader.

Kuwait, which had been among the first countries to express support for Morsi's ouster by the military almost 11 months ago, has since pledged some $4 billion in assistance to Egypt's army-backed government.