After urging the people to boycott the August 2009 constitutional referendum, Bazoum was briefly detained and questioned for two hours on 14 July 2009.[17] Bazoum was re-elected as PNDS Vice-President at the party's Fifth Ordinary Congress, held on 18 July 2009.[18] Following the success of the referendum, he characterized it as a "coup d'etat" and said that the October 2009 parliamentary election was an "electoral farce" intended merely to add a "democratic polish".[19]