A sulphuric stench hangs over Colombia’s presidential election race.

There are dirty negative campaigns and then there are Colombia’s politics.

Last week we learnt that narco-scandals go right to the presidential palace. Also that wire-tapping is back; with President Santos’ main rival Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, accused of sabotaging the peace process with the FARC.

Colombians themselves wish a plague on both their houses; who to vote for in this most unedifying mud-slinging match, they ask?

On Thursday, Alvaro Uribe accused Santos of accepting 2 million dollars in narco-money in his winning campaign of 2010. Friday and Santos was suing Uribe, his former boss.

Santos’ top election adviser JJ Rendon has quit his job, and remains under suspicion of receiving 12 million (yes 12 million) in lobbying money from the narco-mafia. Hours after Mr Rendon left his post, the attorney general opened an investigation into a hacker with close links to Mr Zuluaga’s campaign. The hacker is accused of spying on FARC and government negotiators, and even the president himself. The media have found a criollo Eduardo Snowden.

Win at all costs. This seems to be the motto of Uribe and Santos.

All the while, the real problems that face Colombia – the corruption, the urgent reforms to the health, education and justice systems go unmentioned in a campaign where hatred reigns supreme.

Colombians are offered precious little glimpse of the sunlit uplands.

They are fed up.

Just a third of Colombians have a favourable view of their president, and the majority believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Fewer than half will turn out to vote.

Conservative candidate Marta Lucia Ramirez too offers a bleak view of the Santos years. She claims nearly 5 billion dollars is lost annually to corruption – 5 billion!

Ramirez, like the left-leaning senator-elect Claudia Lopez, believes corruption is the most expensive tax Colombians pay. Left and right agree on this, at least.

With peace on the horizon, Colombia is at a delicate crossroads. Perhaps we should not be surprised by the fierce battle to decide which road it takes.

But whoever wins out will need urgently to calm the rhetoric, unite the nation and offer Colombians a new social contract. It is time for the politicians to build a trust they have never really before enjoyed.

Am I optimistic for the future despite this election campaign?

Absolutely! Colombians are more informed than ever before and fewer and fewer are willing to accept the decadence of many in the political class. The time will come when the discontent feeds into organized politics and the traditional parties and families are forced out of their ivory towers.

It looks as though there will be no change come May 25. But whether the house of Santos or of Uribe wins, the end of their time in office has been hastened.

You cannot ignore all of the people all of the time.