Twenty-five per cent of 1,276 candidates contesting the Punjab Assembly elections has declared criminal cases against themselves, according to a report prepared by the Punjab Election Watch (PEW).

PEW, an affiliate of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), analysed the affidavits of 1,276 candidates out of the total 1,304 in the fray for the February 20 elections.

PEW said it could not analyse the affidavits of 28 candidates as they were either badly scanned or complete details were not uploaded on the website of the Election Commission of India.