SULAIMANIYAH, Iraqi Kurdistan — "Abadi did not come to Sulaimaniyah to improve our economic situation and hold corrupt officials in the Kurdistan Regional Government accountable," Abu Ali, 57, a taxi driver in the city of Sulaimaniyah, told Al-Monitor about the last visit to the city by Iraqi Prime Minister and head of the Victory Alliance Haider al-Abadi.

Abadi surprised everyone April 26 by showing up in Sulaimaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan to attend the Victory Alliance conference as part of the alliance's election campaign ahead of the legislative elections slated for May 12.

Not only did he visit the city of Sulaimaniyah, which has not severed ties with the central government in Baghdad, but he also headed the next day to Erbil, the city that pushed for the Kurdish independence referendum and is seen as the stronghold for separatists calling for secession from Iraq. Abadi also toured Kirkuk, a city Iraqi forces took back from Kurdish peshmerga forces in the wake of the 2017 referendum, and which Kurds still pledge not to give up on.

Abadi is the first Iraqi premier to visit the capital of the Kurdistan Region as well as Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk as part of an election campaign. No previous Iraqi prime minister has visited these governorates in the framework of their election campaigns. Abadi's move is also seen as a bold one because it comes only months after the crisis between Baghdad and Erbil over the independence referendum.