Zimbabwe’s opposition party has claimed a resounding election victory but President Robert Mugabe’s government warned that announcing success before the release of official results would be treated as a coup d’etat.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) the main opposition to Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, indicated that early results posted at polling stations showed Zimbabweans have used their votes to show disgust with the dictator who has brought the country to ruin over the last 28 years.

Tendai Biti, the MDC’s secretary-general, said: “This far, short of a miracle, we have won this election beyond any reasonable doubt. We have won this election.”

But George Charamba, the spokesman for the government, gave an ominous warning against such claims. “It is called a coup d’etat and we all know how coups are handled,” he told the state-owned Sunday Mail.

The MDC said results gathered from observers in every province of the country – including Mugabe’s home town of Mashonaland – and posted outside polling stations, showed their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had beaten Mugabe overwhelmingly. In the capital, Harare, 66 per cent of the vote went against the President, the MDC claimed, while results from rural areas indicated Mugabe’s power base was fast eroding.

The pre-emptive announcement of results by the opposition party is an attempt to thwart any manipulation of results in favour of Mugabe. While Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission said the MDC’s claims were a “concern”, the decision was taken in defiance of a message from Augustine Chihuri, Zimbabwe’s police chief, who warned on Friday against announcing unofficial election results. “We will not tolerate any such pronouncements as they have the effect of trying to take the law into their own hands, thereby fomenting disorder and mayhem,” he said.

Riot police were on standby throughout voting after thousands of Zimbabweans slept at polling stations before they opened, ensuring a large turnout.

Observers from the Pan-African parliament said in a letter to the commission they had found more than 8,000 non-existent voters registered on empty land in a Harare constituency. Biti indicated the MDC would take action if they suspected foul play in the results but that the party would not go to court over rigged elections, a “mistake” which they made over disputed elections in 2002. “The MDC will act inside the law, but the MDC cannot speak for the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Mugabe dismissed vote rigging allegations after casting his vote on Saturday. “I cannot sleep with a clear conscience if there is any cheating,” he said, promising to respect the results. “If you lose an election and are rejected by the people, it is time to leave politics.”

Yesterday’s elections were much anticipated as the most significant vote since independence and the best chance to oust the leader whose actions have put the country in the grip of poverty, with inflation running at 1000 per cent and 80 per cent of the country living on less than $2 a day.

Times Recommends

• No cause for celebration in crushed Sarajevo
• Jazz funeral for the final victims of Katrina
• French fined for 'insulting' civil servants