By PETER KORUGL in Kundiawa
TWO men were shot dead in an ambush early Wednesday in Kerowagi district, bringing the total number of election-related deaths in Simbu to four, since polling commenced last Monday.
Eye witness accounts confirmed the deaths of that of a Grade 11 student from the Goroka Secondary School, who was shot dead as he was making his way from his house to the market at Ganigle.
He was killed instantly with another young man in Kup in Kerowagi district after a disgruntled candidate and his supporters allegedly set up an ambush in the early hours of Wednesday and fired upon the two, who were with others making their way to Ganigle.
Two other men, who were with the deceased were admitted to the Mingende Rural Hospital with gun shot wounds but were later taken to the Kundiawa General Hospital and were reported to be fighting for their lives.
“One of the two in hospital is a brother of one of the deceased. The two are fighting for their lives as they were shot with high-powered guns at very close range,” a relative told The National yesterday.
Tension was high in Kup and there was talk that a full scale tribal fight could erupt in the area between the relatives of the deceased, the injured and that of the candidate and his supporters.
This reporter heard gun shots in the early hours of yesterday in the Kup area.
On Monday, a man from Dagle, also in Kerowagi, was killed in a fight with supporters of two candidates at Moroma. A former aid post orderly was also killed at SinaSina/Yongomugl that day.

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