The man tasked with keeping the combatants at arm's length during the debate is one of Scotland's most seasoned political journalists.
As STV's political editor since 2000 after 10 years as a reporter, Bernard Ponsonby has been holding politicians to account in television studios for more than two decades.
He joined the STV after standing for the Liberal Democrats - then styled as the "Democrats" - in the 1988 Glasgow Govan by-election, losing his deposit, with a 4.1 per cent share of the vote.
For seven years Ponsonby presented STV's political programme Platform. He presently reports and provides political commentary for all three editions of the station's flagship regional news programme, STV News at Six, in the North, East and West of Scotland.
He also contributes to the weekly political programme Politics Now, for which he became presenter in January 2009, until the show's end in 2011. He now commentates on the replacement programme Scotland Tonight.
