KUALA BESUT, July 23 ― With the clock ticking down to tomorrow’s by-election, PAS’s rally last night to secure fence-sitters left a sour note after Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and party spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat failed to show.

The audience was promised their appearance, and the prospect of the two on stage together drew more than 1,000 supporters to an otherwise silent Kampung Tok Saboh, transforming the area into a street carnival lit under the full moon.

A section of the supporters, however, was heard groaning loudly after the host, Ulama wing secretary Nik Muhamad Zawawi Nik Salleh, announced the apologies from the two political icons. Some of the crowd left one by one afterwards, as PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang was the only big name left.

“We have to remember that voting in the polls is a trust. It is a trust burdened upon us by God,” Abdul Hadi told the crowd, many of whom straight after tarawih prayers and still in their baju Melayu.

The Marang MP mostly used anecdotes as he reminisced over PAS’s previous rule of Terengganu, the first between 1959 and 1961, and then between 1999 and 2004.

“Kuala Besut is a historic place. In the 1959 general election, PAS won Terengganu first, then came Kelantan,” he said.

“It was because of Kuala Besut ... When we won in 1999, we won Kuala Besut, too.”

PAS won Terengganu in the then Federation of Malaya’s first general election in 1959, led by state commissioner Ahmad Azzam Hanapiah. Setiu assemblyman Mohd Daud Abdul Samad was appointed mentri besar.

The Islamist party’s rule was short-lived after the Alliance pushed through a no-confidence motion in the assembly in 1961.

It was only in the 1999 polls that PAS would retake Terengganu under Abdul Hadi, who was then state commissioner and was appointed mentri besar.

PAS supporters also held mass prayers later last night to ask for a victory in the by-election. Nik Abdul Aziz was supposed to lead the prayers before he fell sick yesterday.

The Islamist party has been motivating its supporters for the 12-day by-election campaign by invoking a sixth-century battle won by Prophet Muhammad during the holy month of Ramadan, called the Battle of Badr.

In its call for a “jihad” — the Arabic term for holy struggle — PAS asked its followers to emulate the spirit of soldiers during the historic battle, which saw a victory by an outnumbered Muslim force, thanks to supposedly divine intervention.

On Sunday night, Anwar went on the stump here, sounding a plea to voters not to be enslaved by Barisan Nasional’s (BN) financial carrots and preaching his pact’s brand of freedom and empowerment in contrast to BN’s promises of riches and pork barrel politics.

Anwar was seen yesterday morning in the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya for a request to adjourn the government’s appeal of his second sodomy case, which would explain his absence here last night.

Today marks the last day of campaigning for the by-election, which will see local boys Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abdul Rahman from BN and PAS’s Azlan Yusof face each other.