Senegalese MPs pass contested anti-terror laws

Senegalese lawmakers on Friday approved new anti-terror laws that the opposition said would define "seriously disturbing public order" as an act of terrorism, stifling dissent.

The West African state's government says the laws are intended to strengthen its fight against terror groups.

But one clause defines "seriously disturbing public order" as an act of terrorism, a measure which has provoked strong criticism from opposition parties.

Seventy lawmakers in Senegal's 165-seat national assembly voted in favour of the two relevant new bills on Friday, according to Moustapha Niasse, the president of the legislature.

Eleven voted against, he added. It is not clear how many lawmakers were present for the vote.

The voting was preceded by heightened tension in the assembly chamber, as well as on the streets of the capital Dakar.

MPs attacked each other's motives in a lively debate in the national assembly, while opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and a government-supporting MP came to blows in the entry hall.

On Thursday night, the Movement for the Defence of Democracy (MDD), an opposition coalition, had urged supporters to demonstrate against the new laws.

"This bill kills our democracy because it will accuse any dissenter of terrorism," Babacar Diop, an MDD leader, told a press conference.

Protesters gathered in a central square in Dakar on Friday, while police were deployed in the city centre.

Students at Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop university hurled stones at security forces, who fired volleys of tear gas.

The passage of new anti-terror legislation comes amid uncertainty in Senegal over whether President Macky Sall will seek a controversial third term.

Senegalese presidents are limited to two consecutive terms, but some fear Sall will seek to exploit constitutional changes approved in a 2016 referendum to run again in 2024.

On Thursday, thousands of people demonstrated in Dakar against a possible third term for the 59-year-old president.

MDD representatives also told reporters that the anti-terror legislation is designed to suppress demonstrations in the event of a third-term bid by Sall.

In the bill, the government argues that current anti-terror legislation does "not fully cover certain issues," and points to areas such as terror financing in which the law needs to be strengthened.

Defending the initiative on Friday, Justice Minister Malick Sall told the national assembly that opposition MPs had misunderstood the new laws, and that much of what they were criticising was already contained in previous legislation.