Rowan Cole quit as Surrey Chairman last week before he decided to speak for the entire Surrey CF and back Ben Howlett's opponent for CF Chairman.
There was uproar amongst local Chairman and members as they did not get say in where their area support should go. In a victory for democracy acting Surrey area Chairman Josh Burge has held a branch vote this past weekend to decide which candidate should receive Surrey's endorsement.
Ben Howlett won the branch vote by 4-2.
Howlett won the support of Royal Holloway, Surrey University, Mole Valley and Woking. Craig Cox has received no support in Surrey.
Three branches are yet to declare, but Howlett insists he has verbal backing from both Runnymede and Surrey Heath. Epsom & Ewell have offered an open invitation to all candidates to come and discuss their ideas for CF in tBg's story earlier today.
++UPDATE 19:51++
tBg has asked Ben for comment on this dramatic turn of events.
Ben said: "I am very pleased with the vote from the Branch Chairman of Surrey, democratically speaking on behalf of their branch members. The election conducted by Josh is the first of its kind in the National CF Election Campaign and has conclusively shown that members do not want to be told what to do but be empowered to have their vote count. I am pleased to have their support.
I look forward to meeting with Epsom CF on Friday to talk about their issues with CF and to see how I can better represent their members and engage with the grassroots across Surrey."
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