Chisinau/Moscow  - After days of violent protests, Moldova's ruling Communist Party fell one vote short of the number needed to name the country's next president, according to final, adjusted election results released late Wednesday.

The final figures were made public after three days of dramatic protests against the full Communist victory in the small country that lies between Ukraine and Romania.

Since Sunday's elections, one person was killed and demonstrators occupied and set ablaze the parliament building, smashed windows, hurled paving stones at law enforcers and ransacked the presidential residence building.

Moldovan police recaptured the parliament structure in the capital Chisinau Wednesday morning, just hours before the adjusted election results were released.

Initial results had given the ruling Communists 61 votes in Moldova's 101-seat legislature, which would have enabled them to name the next president without coalition talks.

But Moldolva's Central Election Commission said the party had taken only 60 seats, the Interfax news agency reported from the Moldovan capital of Chisinau late Wednesday.

Opposition parties laid claim to 41 seats, with which they can now block the election of a new president. Election officials also guaranteed that opposition parties would have access to the election documents and records.

President Vladimir Voronin, who heads the Communist Party, must step down after two terms in office. His party has ruled for eight years.

In its final calculations, the electoral commission added a half of a per cent to the opposition win, bringing it to 49.48 per cent.

Opposition seats will be filled by representatives from three liberal democratic parties. Eight other parties failed to attract enough support to gain an MP slot.

International monitoring groups including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the Sunday vote was generally democratic, with few violations of election law.

But opposition parties in the wake of the election claimed the vote was inherently unfair, as the election campaign was conducted with strong Communist party control of major media and regional governments.

Mark Tkachuk, a Voronin spokesman, accused the leaders of Moldova's top three opposition parties of "attempting a coup to overthrow the government." (dpa)