Two-time Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko says she plans to run for president in the elections to be held in May.  But a poll taken before her announcement indicates the potentially polarizing figure might have a tough time in a crowded field.

Tymoshenko was a major figure in the 2004 “Orange Revolution” that ousted Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency the first time, after an election widely seen as fraudulent.  She ran against him unsuccessfully in 2010.  After Yanukovych returned to office, Tymoshenko was jailed on what the west said were politically motivated charges. 

She spent two and a half years there until Yanukovych was overthrown again in February, got sprung from prison, and made a beeline to address the protesters in Maidan Square.  But the reaction was mixed at best, with many protesters upset that their sacrifice during months of occupying the capital might result in merely returning the same cast of characters to power.  She might get a boost from her longtime political ally Oleksandr Turchynov, who is the interim president.

A poll released the day before Tymoshenko’s announcement says she’s in third place.  Businessman Petro Poroshenko, known as the “Chocolate King” enjoys the widest support at just under 25 percent.  Former heavyweight boxer Vitaly Klitschko is in second place and Tymoshenko is third.  After that comes the hodge-podge of Communists, fringe parties, screwballs, fascists and racists.