DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — The ongoing power struggle between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP, the main political group ruling Iraqi Kurdistan) and armed Kurdish militants from Turkey over the Iraqi Yazidi enclave, Sinjar, has extended to the Iraqi elections, with the vote resulting in a surprising debacle for the latter. 

The KDP won all three seats in the town, defying Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)-linked groups’ attempts to undercut the KDP’s campaigns in the run-up to the Oct. 10 elections. In some instances, KDP candidates were prevented from traveling to the region. While PKK-linked groups are now pushing for the cancellation of those results, analysts widely believe the militant group, which is on Turkey’s terror list, is short of sufficient support in the mountainous town that could turn the tables in its favor. 

Sinjar — a focal point of the tensions between the PKK and the KDP since 2014 and one of the disputed areas between Erbil and the central Iraqi government — was under the de-facto control of Erbil until 2014 when peshmerga forces withdrew from the region on the face of the Islamic State’s (IS) swift territorial gains in northern Iraq. 

The monthslong besiege by IS of the region, in which thousands of Yazidis were killed, ended mostly with the help of PKK-affiliated fighters who rushed to help the local population. Indignant at peshmerga forces who abandoned the area on the eve of the onslaught, Yazidis welcomed PKK militants that also helped form the region's local force, the Sinjar Resistance Units, and maintained their presence at the mountain after the defeat of IS.