[WATCH] Political leaders battle it out on campus - video, slideshow

In a lively debate held on Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the three political parties contesting the 9 March election battled it out in front of a boisterous crowd of students.

The leaders' debate organised by student organisation Insite at University was largely dominated by gay rights, the decriminalisation of drugs, stipends and other issues concerning students.

The three leaders, AD's Michael Briguglio, Labour's Joseph Muscat and the PN's Lawrence Gonzi, spelt out their respective positions on a number of issues, making the differences between the parties clear, however the debate also exposed the common ground shared by the three parties.

The need to grant same-sex couples legal recognition and reduce criminal punishment for persons who make personal use of drugs were among the issues on which the party leaders signalled basic agreement.

However, Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Michael Briguglio explained that unlike the two main parties, The Greens were for same-sex marriage and drug decriminalisation.

"This Thursday it's Valentine's Day but the political parties are telling gay persons who love each other that cannot get married," Briguglio said, stressing that AD supports gay marriage.

His plea to decriminalise personal drug use was met with enthusiastic support by parts of the crowds. Briguglio explained "it doesn't make sense to send someone to jail for smoking a joint and leave drug barons roam freely in the streets."

Reacting to Briguglio's claims on drugs, Gonzi and Muscat agreed that persons arrested for the first time for personal drug use should not be imprisoned but a warning and counselling would suffice, however they confirmed that neither were championing decriminalisation.

On gay rights Gonzi and Muscat agreed that the time was ripe to introduce some form of recognition for gay couples, however both oppo sed putting the recognition on a par with marriage. 

Another main point of contention was the stipends issue with Gonzi accusing Labour of making false promises on maintaining the stipend system.

Although all three party leader agreed on maintaining stipends and linking them to the cost of living adjustment mechanism, Gonzi awakened the ghosts of past by reading a Labour leaflet published before the 1996 election, warning that the PN would shed doubts on Labour's commitment to maintain stipends.

"Labour promised to keep stipends only to turn them into loans," Gonzi said, adding that this would happen again if Labour is elected.

On his part, Muscat accused Gonzi of being "the only Prime Minister to have reduced stipends."

After talking for an hour, the three leaders answered a few questions from the floor, with most being inevitably planted by the two big parties.