The Central Land Council has voted to re-elect Warren Williams as its chair at a meeting in Yulara.
On Wednesday, the CLC, which represents 24,000 remote Indigenous people across Central Australia, announced Mr Williams had been elected chair for a second term, along with Barbara Shaw as deputy chair.
Having twice been deputy chair, the retired assistant Yuendumu school principal represents Warlpiri communities on the Central Desert Regional Council as well as chairing Yuendumu's Yapa Kurlangu Ngurrara Aboriginal Corporation.
The re-election comes in the wake of Mr Williams being criticised by long-time CLC opponent and NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price for previous convictions, including domestic violence order breaches, assault, and being armed with an offensive weapon. Some of the offences, which occurred between 2008 and 2015, led to time in prison.
On Wednesday Mr Williams thanked the 90 community delegates who "put me in as the chair".
"They are doing a lot of work in our communities, and they put their trust in me," he said.
Ms Shaw works with the Tangentyere Family Safety Group targeting family violence in Alice Springs town camps, and chairs Aboriginal Investment Northern Territory.
"Our land councils and our rights are under attack again and I am ready to support our members and our chair in this fight," she said.
Noting the current federal election and the current "sky-high" cost-of-living crisis impacting Central Australia, Mr Williams called on politicians to visit remote communities to see the lack of "real jobs" and overcrowded and dilapidated housing.
"They should get out of their offices and look at the state the houses are in out in our communities," he said.
"We need to see more young people training and working in our communities, in mines and on roads. Our roads need lots of work."
Mr Williams also said residents in Central Australia needed relief from the high price of groceries, fuel, electricity, and transport.
"It really does matter," he said. "It's alright for people in cities to complain about the cost of living. Come to our communities and see how much we have to pay. We pay twice what they pay, yet we have the lowest incomes."
Earlier this year, the government announced a policy to make 30 essential items in 76 remote community stores across Australia the same as in cities and boost warehouse capacity to make remote supply chains less vulnerable.
It is part of a 10-year National Strategy to improve food security in remote First Nations communities as well as increase access to affordable and nutritious food.
"We know that remote First Nations communities are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity," Indigenous Affairs Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said last month.
The CLC, along with other land councils in the NT, has been heavily criticised by Senator Price. In October, along with a group of local Arrernte Elders, she called for an inquiry into the land council.
"If an organisation has not delivered or fulfilled its purpose for its people, then the number of years it has existed is irrelevant," Senator Price said.
On Mr Williams' criminal record, she called on the government to "act immediately."
"How absurd does the situation have to become before we say enough is enough? The Central Land Council is a key organisation in the lives of the most marginalised and vulnerable Australians in the country, and yet it is being run by someone with a serious criminal history," she said in February.
For his part, Mr Williams has expressed remorse for the "mistakes" he had made in his life but had "worked hard to turn things around and set things right".
"I regret things I did in the past and have worked hard to make up for them. For the past decade, I've been on a better path, helping others and working to prevent domestic violence in our communities," he said earlier this year.
The CLC said the nine remaining members of the council's executive committee would be elected on Wednesday afternoon, in an election run by the NT Electoral Commission.
