Both ways work.
emre & s4l1h got elected cto based on what they already did.
I got elected cso because I announced to set up a team. Couldn't have done that without having the coins to pay them.
itsik78 also has good chances of getting elected for the same idea, again, he can only create a team when he got the coins.
Both of us who are currently elected are struggling to not get outvoted by Newmine's supporters. Because they don't care what's being done, despite everything they say. If they take the cso office and keep on saying 20% is enough, I won't be able to keep as many people working on support issues as there are now.
As we can see with the cmo position, people will get sacked when they don't deliver. Votes are counted every 2 hours, so it can happen any time.
It's the responsibility of the community to select a good candidate, or spoil the vote if there's none.
With only 3-8% of coins voting, around half of those voting for "themselves", and only about two candidates per office, I think the way the community handles this is much more of a problem than any existing candidate out there who is at least doing something.