The Afghanistan presidential election was marred by fraud, intimidation and irregularities, a major American newspaper said, while cautioning that it was too early to make a judgment on the polls legitimacy. Jandad Spingar, director of the Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan, said the groups 7,000 observers reported stuffed ballot boxes, voting by proxy and other irregularities, The Wall Street Journal reported from Kabul. But he said the watchdog group is still tabulating its findings and has not yet determined whether the fraud was so pervasive the results were unfair. European groups generally hailed the election as a sign of democracy in Afghanistan, while acknowledging flaws. In some provinces, many polling centers were closed because of fear of violence, Spingar said. In Uruzgan, only six of the 36 polling centers for women opened. The threat of violence was not an empty one. Ahmed Nader Nadery, the foundations chairman, said one observer saw insurgents cutting off the fingers of two women in Kandahar province. The Taliban had threatened to remove the ink-stained fingers that proved someone had voted. On Friday, a convoy carrying ballot boxes to Kabul was ambushed, and one election worker was killed, and there have been reports of up to 26 people killed on Thursdays election day. With results of the election still up in the air, President Hamid Karzai and his chief rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, have both claimed they are ahead. We are ahead in many places, Nasrine Gross, a member of Dr. Abdullahs campaign staff, was quoted as saying. Were confident we will win despite all the fraud that we have seen. The Karzai campaign brushed off allegations that it had committed fraud, saying its rivals were seeking only to detract from the presidents victory. Its absolutely clear that we will have over 50% of the votes in our favour. This is indicated by our initial observations, Seddiq Seddiqi, a Karzai campaign spokesman, was quoted as saying. Election observers and diplomats say they fear such statements may raise expectations to the point that neither sides supporters will accept defeat. That could undermine the legitimacy of the incoming president or, even worse, lead to ethnic clashes. Karzai is a Pashtun, the countrys largest ethnic group; Dr. Abdullah has a Pashtun father but is more closely aligned with the Tajik minority, his mothers people.