Alwaght-Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region on Thursday, seeking to spread a message of unity as he campaigns for next month’s legislative elections.
“Our project is to build a political bloc that transcends sect and ethnicity,” al-Abadi said in Erbil. He spoke of brotherhood between Arabs and Kurds.
Iraqi parliament and local elections are slated for May 12th. Abadi is competing through his al-Nasr list.
Al-Abadi’s electoral list is the only one to field candidates in all 18 of Iraq’s governorates poll. In recent days he has visited Shiite provinces in the south and the Sunni heartland of Anbar and Mosul.
Prime Minister al-Abadi was received in Erbil by the prime minister of the Kurdish region, Nechirvan Barzani, who has the task of improving relations with Baghdad after his uncle Massoud Barzani resigned as president in the wake of the referendum.
Relations deteriorated between Baghdad and Erbil after the autonomous region voted in a popular poll in September for independence from Iraq, a step Baghdad deemed unconstitutional.
After several penal measures from Baghdad, including an embargo on international flights to Kurdistan, and a recapture of territories where sovereignty is disputed by both sides, a detente was witnessed over the past few months after Baghdad lifted the embargo and recent reports denote joint management of disputed regions. Baghdad has also sent long-awaited salaries to salaries to Kurdistan government employees.
Politicians and pollsters expect al- Abadi’s list of candidates to win the most votes following his government’s victory over ISIS terrorist group and efforts to unite the country’s ethnic and religious groups.
This will be Iraq’s fourth parliamentary and provincial assembly polls since the country ousted long-time dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
