Residents in Roseau River First Nation went to the polls for a second time in less than a week to vote for a chief and council on Sunday.

Roseau held an election on Thursday, but the federal Indian and Northern Affairs department refused to recognize those results because the vote was not carried out according to Roseau's election bylaws, which had just recently been amended. As a result, the federal court judge appointed a new electoral officer and another vote was held Sunday.

Craig Alexander was again elected as chief, as were councillors June Thomas and Rachel Ferreira. Zongidaya Nelson and Keith Henry were also elected to council.  

Ken Henry Jr. and Gary Roberts, who were elected as councillors in Thursday's vote, were removed as candidates from Sunday's election ballot.

Alexander captured 283 votes to win Roseau's top job, beating out nearest rival Lawrence Henry who garnered 187 ballots.
 
Alexander says it's time to put this election behind them and help the community move forward.

"There a lot of issues that we need to fix and we need to come up with a community needs assessment to figure out where we are, what we want and how we're going to do it. So, we plan to brainstorm and make strategic plans on how to move forward into the future," said Alexander.

Alexander was pleased voters elected him as chief despite having to vote for a second time in four days.

"It shows the people believe in me and I believe in them and together we will build our community as a strong nation and I look forward to working with the elected councillors here. We await word from INAC to officially appoint us as the new chief and council for the next two years."

Councillor Rachel Ferreira agrees with the new chief that an examination of the band's finances should be the first order of business to determine the needs of the community.

"We can't do that without a team, so I look forward to working with the newly elected members."

Keith Henry garnered the most votes as a councillor and says he's looking forward to the next two years.

"The people have spoken and I guess they have a lot of confidence in me to help out our community and make informed decisions. I'll try to do my best to keep people informed about the issues."

Voter turnout was low as just over 500 people cast ballots on Sunday, which was about the same number in Thursday's election. Roseau River First Nation has a total of 1,768 eligible voters.