One day during the election campaign, a colleague and I visited the MCAST campus with the intention of conducting a vox pop. We wanted to ask students who they were voting for and why, and what electoral proposals interested them the most.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed to see that only a few were interested in speaking to us. When we asked students if they wanted to participate, most expressed the fact that they were camera-shy or that they did not feel comfortable publicising their political opinions. We thus decided to widen our search for participants by visiting other campuses, namely Junior College and University.

After two-and-a-half hours of asking around, we thankfully did manage to speak to a few students, and so the vox pop wasn't a complete failure. But I was definitely surprised by how difficult it was to get students to express their political leanings. After speaking to another journalist, who had also hosted a vox pop a few days prior, she confirmed that it was equally as hard for her, having spent five hours asking students (to no avail) if they would be willing to share their thoughts.

One might argue that this is not very surprising, as politics can be quite a controversial topic, and expressing one's views publicly opens the doors to potential criticism or even mockery. But what doesn't make sense in my eyes, is that a few days later the University hosted a debate between the political leaders, and students had no problem attending to cheer on their favoured candidate.

Chants of "Viva l-Labour" and "Olej olej Nazzjonalisti" filled Sir Temi Zammit Hall. You'd never be able to guess that a few days prior, these same students were refusing to discuss which party they leaned towards.

It seems that students are more than willing to participate in tribalist politics when the election draws near, cheering on their preferred party leader and booing the opponent as if it were a football game. And yet when it comes to having a civilised discussion about policies and proposals, that enthusiasm suddenly vanishes.

Perhaps the problem is that young people are often discouraged by their parents and teachers from discussing politics throughout their upbringing and education. Because of this, when one is met with an election of sorts, they lack the experience and the knowledge to think critically of what is being presented to them. They know to pick one side over the other, but they refuse to discuss the reasons why, as such a discussion is deemed taboo.

Although such an idea seems out of reach, I hope that in future elections are not treated like the spectacle they are made out to be, and young people are able to engage in politics without this strict red versus blue mentality.