In Iraq, the domination of armed factions was at the heart of the legislative elections – Liberation

In Saadoun, in downtown Baghdad, a building decorated with monumental murals depicting the triumph of Hassan Nasrallah watches over the city’s bustling arteries. Around the historic leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, crowds waved Iraqi and Palestinian flags, as well as the flag of the Popular Mobilization Units (Hachd al-Chaabi), a coalition of Iraqi armed factions whose acronyms have filled the city’s spaces for years. The capital’s arteries have long been decorated with arms celebrating the Axis of Resistance, from Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in 2020 by an American strike, to local commanders celebrated as martyrs. However, since the opening of the election campaign, other statues have also appeared: retouched portraits of legislative candidates,