What is the meaning of "elected to choose"?

"Two of those were high-ranking S.S. officers: of those, one, Wolfgang Von Manteuffel, a tall, thin man with cold blue eyes, was a major-general, no more than thirty-five years old: the second, Heinrich Spaatz, a thick-set, swarthy man who had apparently elected to choose a scowl as his, permanent expression in life, was a colonel of about the same age."

This is from Alistair Maclean - River Of Death.

I don't understand the use of "elected to choose".
I got this that Spaatz has a scowl on his face all the time.

But elect and choose means same so why writer has used both of them?
Elect means
elect to do sth: (formal) to choose to do something

In this case it looks " ....man who had apparently chose to choose a scowl as his,......"

Of course, Maclean is right but I can't understand what "elected to choose" means.
Where can we use it?
I googled and found other sentences too with "elected to choose" but still couldn't get where this expression is used? What does it signify?

Please help me with it.