“Removing warlords is one of my promises,” he said in an interview yesterday. “Nobody should have a private militia in Afghanistan any more, period.

“The only entities in this country that should have weapons are the army and police and that was the message of the Afghan people by going in their millions to the polls.”

His pledge came as early results suggested he could be heading for a landslide victory with as much as 70% of the vote.

Karzai has barely stopped smiling since watching millions of his countrymen defy threats of Taliban violence to go to the polls last Saturday.

“I don’t care if I win or lose,” he insisted with a wide grin. “I’m in a mood of celebration. I’m so proud of the Afghan people and the goodwill this has brought us from the rest of the world.”

Counting resumed yesterday after pausing on Friday for the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. The start of the count had been delayed by allegations of multiple voting: rival candidates complained that supposedly indelible ink used to mark voters’ fingers could be washed off. An inquiry has been set up to investigate the claims.

According to the latest figures, 85% of the 10m people registered turned out to vote and more than a third were women. The final result is not expected for another two weeks and election officials are making light of the ink fiasco, saying it affected only a few polling stations and was quickly corrected.

At the heavily fortified Kabul counting centre, male and female counters in blue vests sat at trestle tables yesterday, placing ballot papers into piles for the 18 candidates. In each case, Karzai’s pile was by far the highest. In second place was Younis Qanuni, the education minister and Northern Alliance leader.

Apart from the enormous turnout, the biggest surprise in Afghanistan’s first election for more than 30 years was the failure of the Taliban to disrupt it.

Karzai declared the Taliban a spent force. “It’s absolutely finished as a militant organisation,” he said. “It’s just individuals. I think there are only 50 to 100 who still continue to hob-nob with Al-Qaeda and terrorists and those people are not welcome here.”

He added: “The Afghan people have shown their desire for peace and I hope the Taliban will now end their military activity, stop shooting their own people and hurting their own children. Instead they should come and live in this country and contribute to its peace and economic activity.”

If the US-backed Karzai wins the elections as handsomely as predicted, his troubles may be only just beginning, however. Warlords such as General Abdul Rashid Dostum, his Uzbek rival in the north of the country, and Ismael Khan in the west will not take kindly to finding themselves sidelined.

But if he weakens and gives them a role, most Afghan people who voted for a strong central government will feel cheated. “This is a tremendous responsibility for the president,” said Dr Zalmay Rasul, his national security adviser. “The Afghan people voted for hope and for change and they need to see their vote has been useful. People are giving him a mandate to act against the warlords and it is very important he fulfils this.”

One area in which more progress is expected is reconstruction. Many people in Kabul still live in shelled-out buildings and electricity is sporadic, while the river through the city centre is a rubbish-clogged sewer. One in four children dies by the age of five, largely because of a lack of clean water.

“The destruction was massive and I don’t think any government or international community could remake Afghanistan in three years,” said Karzai. “But now the Afghan people have done their part by voting and the international community should help many times more than in the past to consolidate this gain and make sure it remains permanent.”

Karzai said his biggest priority would be to stop Afghanistan from turning into a “narco-state”.

He has already begun discussions on creating an anti-narcotics ministry. Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium and it is widely known that senior government figures and provincial governors are involved.

“The fight against drugs will be top of my agenda”, Karzai said. “That means fighting drugs everywhere — inside and outside the government. We must get rid of this.”

Asked if he would be prepared to arrest some in his own government, he punched his desk, vowing: “I will make examples like hell, terrible examples.”

Then he strode off to say his prayers at the palace mosque, surrounded by his usual posse of gun-wielding American bodyguards, yet looking as if he did not have a care in the world.

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