DLTS measurements were performed to study the annealing induced changes of the trap centers in MOV and to shed more light on the stability mechanism of the MOV. Two electron traps, Ec-0.26[eV] and Ec-(O.2-0.3)[eV], were observed in the unannealed samples in large quantities(7-9 X 1014[CM 3]), whereas the three electron traps Ec-0.17 [eV], Ec-0.26[eV] and Ec-(O.2-0.3)[eV] were observed far less in the annealed samples. The minima in the Ec-0.26[eV] trap density, coupled with the presented results that unannealed devices are unstable whereas 600.deg. C annealed devices are most stable, suggests that the instability of the MOV under long term electrical stressing is related to the Ec-0.26[eV] trap. This results support that the ion migration model for the device instability where the Ec-0.26[eV] defects may be the interstitial zinc or the migrating ions. The interstitial zinc originated as a result of the nonstoichiometric nature of ZnO might cause the degradation of the I-V characteristics of the MOV with long term electrical stressing.