Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change, bounded into a shabby banqueting suite in the early hours of Sunday and claimed a “tsunami” of a victory over President Robert Mugabe.

“This is a historic moment for all of us,” he told scores of activists, diplomats and journalists crowded into the old colonial Meikles Hotel. “We must savour these scenes. For the rest of our lives we’ll say we were there.”