One of the things that libertarians (a subgroup of anarchists) passed on to most anarchists is that decision process must be made by a group through consensus except for very special occasions of urgency, critical to make a decision, and a persistent insignificant minority unwilling to be convinced.

Both representation and the allowance of a majority to enforce their decisions to a minority are globally rejected by most anarchists. So to ask this is like asking what is the best way for muslims and jews to eat pork. Simple, no way!

An election process requires that all discussion has ended, the proposals to choose are clear, those who concentrate power and represent groups are also clear, and one group is going to force things on another group (or rest of the groups) by counting votes.

Having said all this and to keep track of history, the CNT (the most famous libertarian mass organization, a huge federation of non-hierarchical unions) was first in developing an election system as part of the decision making system. The earliest group using consensus for decision making were mormons’ in the US west within the committee of elders.

Note: Libertarian as in pro-capitalist and the resulting libertarian socialist “tag” are products of N.American propaganda and anti-communism, spread by people who are either on a payroll or have not read a single book in their life, and spill over to the english speaking world of such people. For the rest of us using such terms the American way is a laughing matter. Emma Goldman and Errico Malatesta were libertarians, Howard Stern is an obnoxious rich capitalist freak, pop-star!