On April 4 2008, opposition parties will file a motion of no confidence in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev on the grounds of "the Government's ties with organised crime”, Vesselin Metodiev from the right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party told reporters in Parliament on April 3 2008.

For the motion to hit parliamentary floor, the opposition needs at least 48 signatures from among the 240 members of Parliament. Metodiev said they were close to gathering the required number of signatures.

The motion refers to the row surrounding Interior Ministry and the leaks of classified information that has revealed facts about the ministry's work. According to the words of Interior Minister Roumen Petkov, he has held meeting with people under investigation “in the best interest of the ministry and Bulgaria”.

The arrest of Iliya Iliev, the former chief secretary of the ministry, and Ivan Ivanov, the current deputy head of the ministry's chief directorate for combating organised crime, were the other reasons cited by the opposition for filing the no confidence motion.

This will be the fifth no confidence motion filed against Stanishev's Cabinet. The last one was filed in February on the grounds of alleged corruption. The ruling majority defeated the motion with 149 MPs against and 86 in favour.

The three parties making up the ruling coalition - Bulgarian Socialist Party, National Movement for Stability and Progress and Movement for Rights and Freedoms - have a solid majority of 150 MPs.

According to article 93 of Parliament's regulations, a new motion of no confidence in the Cabinet can not be filed on the same grounds in the next six months. From this point of view, the opposition is safe with filing the motion on the grounds of organised crime, as opposed to alleged corruption, which was its reasoning in February.

If the motion passes, snap polls would have to be called. The next scheduled elections for Parliament are in summer 2009.