On 25 February 2023, members of the Banyamulenge community waited outside a voter-registration centre in Nyangezi, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reuters video identifies the Catholic parish of Chibimbi and shows people seated outside under police guard. Two women there had been attacked with stones and sticks while trying to register. The issue was not merely speed, but whether eligible residents could reach the centre safely.
Nationally, more than 50 million voters were expected to register. Some centres had missed an interim deadline already extended by 25 days, while others had not opened because of security problems. Registration decides who will be counted as a voter. The people in Nyangezi were seeking more than a card: they were completing the check that would admit them to a future polling station. Calling this simply a slow line would conceal the threat around it. Access depended on the ability to wait without being driven away by violence.