I haven't a clue about the politics of forums but how are moderators elected? Is it democratic?

nope. the admins with the help of james r. decides who the mods are.
if enough complaints pile up against a certain mod i'm sure it would be dealt with though.

The last lot of moderators were appointed following discussions among all existing moderators and the administrators.

We tried democracy in the past, with users nominating and voting directly for moderators. There were mixed results from that. Interestingly, almost none of the people elected by that process are still posting on sciforums.

I haven't a clue about the politics of forums but how are moderators elected? Is it democratic?

Names were given in the mod forum and then Plazma sent a few PMs to a few of us asking if we were interested.