Yanukovych is tipped to recover from the defeat he suffered in 2004, when a court stripped him of his fraud-marred presidential victory and ordered a rerun, which was won by the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko. In a remarkable reversal of fortune, Yanukovych's Party of the Regions is leading in opinion polls, ahead of Yushchenko and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.