Thousands of National League for Democracy followers at its headquarters in Yangon roared over and over yesterday as a big screen flashed up early official results that showed the party almost sweeping the board in some stronghold areas. Street sellers even offered T-shirts saying: “We won” — replacing the previous model, which had declared “We must win.”

The jubilation marked a release of decades of frustration after the country’s long years of dictatorship, the mood tempered neither by the lack of full evidence of triumph nor potential defeats outside party heartlands. NLD activists and a top official insisted they were confident of winning the 67 per cent of available seats needed for an overall majority in parliament, where a quarter of the places are reserved for the military.

“I never saw a scene like this,” said Win Maw Twin, a 49-year-old shipping company assistant manager, who was in tears as the crowd sang NLD songs while a damp Yangon afternoon turned to dusk. “This is the great victory.”