Reuben T. Meade was sworn in­to of­fice as the new pre­mier of Montser­rat, less than nine months af­ter com­ing out of re­tire­ment and lead­ing his new­ly formed Unit­ed Al­liance (UA) to vic­to­ry in the gen­er­al elec­tion on Thurs­day.

“We no longer have sup­port­ers. This is not Unit­ed Al­liance ver­sus the rest. This is Montser­rat ver­sus the rest and we will work to­geth­er to make this coun­try de­vel­op to its full po­ten­tial for us, our chil­dren and grand­chil­dren,” Meade said, soon af­ter he was sworn in­to of­fice by Gov­er­nor Sarah Tuck­er.

Meade, 70, who served as the is­land’s first pre­mier be­tween 2010 and 2014, and had al­so served as chief min­is­ter of this British over­seas ter­ri­to­ry on two oc­ca­sions be­tween 1991 and 2010, promised an in­clu­sive ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“We promise you to be a gov­ern­ment of the peo­ple. Your gov­ern­ment. You will nev­er hear us say­ing my gov­ern­ment. It is your gov­ern­ment. We pledge to serve you hon­est­ly and with com­pas­sion,” he said.