In the midst of one of the most competitive Michigan Student Assembly election races in recent history, the presidential and vice presidential candidates from each party will engage in a debate at 7:30 tonight in the Palmer Commons Auditorium.

All three parties in the election — the Defend Affirmative Action Party, the Michigan Vision Party and the reMichigan Campaign — will take part in the debate, which WOLV-TV will broadcast on channel 55 and stream to its website.

Vice presidential candidates will field questions from Political Science Prof. Scott Page, who was MSA president from 1984-1985, until 8 p.m., at which point presidential candidates will take the stage until the close of the debate at 9 p.m.

Page said he thinks student leaders offer a unique perspective on improving campus-wide issues.

“When I was a student, I was convinced that students had some of the best ideas for how to improve the University,” he said. “I still think that’s true.”

Page will pose a series of questions to the candidates, who will each have a maximum of one and a half minutes to answer. There will be no rebuttals, but Page will be permitted to ask follow-up questions.

Presidential candidates will be given a minute and a half for an opening statement and two minutes for a closing statement.

MSA Election Director Emily Winter, who helped organize the debate, said questions will be on subjects like how the current economy will affect students, how the future president will make MSA more transparent and the direction each candidate sees MSA moving toward in the future.

Current MSA Vice President Arvind Sohoni and Jason Raymond, rules and elections committee chair, also helped to organize the event.

Page said he will select “salient and challenging questions from a stack of questions submitted by interested students.”

Winter said she thinks the candidates for this election have more focused goals for MSA than in years past, which she said should make the debate more interesting.

“I think the parties this year are really into this election and really have clear visions for what they want to do on campus,” she said. “So I think it’ll give the debate an actual debate atmosphere. I think there will be a lot more talking about issues rather than focusing on nitty-gritty stuff.”

Though an MSA debate is not held every year — it has been an on-again off-again tradition in recent election cycles — the Election Board decided to host one this year due to the strong interest voiced by the candidates.

The inclusion of vice presidential candidates, however, has not occurred in recent history. The decision to include vice presidential candidates was largely based on party concerns that the position should not be overlooked, Winter said.

“In the past, things can happen and presidents can decide to resign,” she said. “And (the candidates) felt like it was an important position and that their point of views should be included.”

Winter said she thinks including the vice presidential candidates will help better inform students about each party, as they will hear platform positions “from different people.”

Page said the candidates have taken interest in important issues, which he thinks will make the debate interesting.

“I expect a lively, interesting debate,” he said. “The parties have staked out compelling issues. Students should attend this; it’ll be fun.”