Along with Socialist Party candidate Ousmane Tanor Dieng, Bathily filed an appeal regarding the election, but their appeals were rejected by the Constitutional Council. He was briefly detained by police in late January 2007, along with other opposition leaders, after participating in a banned protest regarding the delaying of parliamentary elections until June. After the formation of a government that included Wade's son Karim on May 1, 2009, Bathily denounced Wade for running the country through "family management", and he said that "Senegal beats all records in terms of bad governance. I am ashamed of my country." In addition, he criticized plans to introduce the office of Vice-President, saying that this office was unnecessary and senseless; he argued that it would merely be used by Wade "to ensure a monarchical succession". Bathily supported opposition candidate Macky Sall in the February–March 2012 presidential election. Sall won the election; a few months after taking office, he appointed Bathily as Minister of State at the Presidency on 1 August 2012. On 8 July 2013, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Bathily's appointment as his Deputy Special Representative in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Less than a year later, on 30 April 2014, Ban Ki-moon announced Bathily's appointment as his Special Representative for Central Africa and Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) in Libreville, Gabon. Prior to an opposition protest in Libreville on 20 December 2014, Bathily called for dialogue, warning of the potential for "a deep crisis". In May 2015, Bathily presided over the Bangui National Forum, a national reconciliation conference organized by the transition government of the Central Africa Republic. The purpose of the Bangui National Forum was to bring together Central Africans from all regions and backgrounds to find lasting solutions to years of recurrent political instability in the country.