I think they are not elected yet based on the fact that there wasn't that much support for @pennsif's call for Regional Leaders.
If his post got more attention, there could be elections and at the same time, Regional Groups like #SteemPhilippines need to be built first with the members accounted for before Regional Elections could be held.
I personally don't mind if I am the official Regional Leader or not since I will be doing what I am doing regardless of if I am the official "Regional Leader" or not.
I do think think leadership that I’m discussing is completely different though.. curating posts who use a regional tag and meetup with steemians is great, but there still needs to be actual leadership.
I personally don't think it is all that much different since Leaders should be able to rally people in-person, otherwise they are more like marketing gurus and televangelists than leaders IMO.