KIEV, Aug. 16 – Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tyhypko, who finished third in the January 2010 presidential election, on Tuesday announced plans to merge his Strong Ukraine party with President Viktor Yanukovych’s Regions Party.

The merger may pave the way for Tyhypko’s nomination as the next prime minister and perhaps allow him to lead the Regions Party for general elections in October 2012.

“Ukraine needs reforms and this is the most important thing,” Tyhypko said at a press conference announcing the merger. “I am convinced that by joining the ruling party from the inside it would be easier to draft and implement [reform] decisions.”

Tyhypko was widely speculated to get the nomination in June and had even issued comments admitting that he had an “ambition” to become the prime minister. However, he also said it was “unrealistic” at the time to get the nomination.

Analysts said Tyhypko needed a firm affiliation with the Regions Party to get the nomination to the post amid opposition to his candidacy from other senior members of the ruling party.

The merger, which will take at least two months and will have to be approved by the parties at their meetings, may shake up Ukraine’s political landscape.

Tyhypko, who collected 13% of votes in the first round of the presidential election in January, has been losing his popularity rapidly ever since he had joined Yanukovych’s government.

Meanwhile, the Regions Party itself has been losing voter support rapidly, and with unpopular reforms yet to be implemented, such as pension reform and utilities price hike, the latest move may completely destroy Tyhypko pubic support.

“Tyhypko purchased a ticket to Titanic,” Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the leader of the small opposition group Civic Position, said. “If anybody had an illusion that Tyhypko is a modern politician with European face and a successful reformer, these illusions had been dashed today.”

The move, however, may strengthen positions of Tyhypko’s rivals, such as Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former speaker of parliament, who finished fourth in the presidential election in January 2010 with 7% of the vote.

Yatseniuk, unlike Tyhypko, refused to join the Yanukovych government in 2010 and his public support has remained strong and even growing lately.

Tyhypko clashed with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on several key issues, such as the cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.

Tyhypko is in favor of resuming cooperation with the IMF as soon as possible, while Azarov has repeatedly said that Ukraine can do without borrowing money from the IMF.

An IMF team is expected to arrive in Ukraine on August 29 to see whether the government has done enough to win resumption of $15.5 billion loan, which has been suspended since March. (ob/ez)