On Tuesday, Congress’ lower house postponed until July 3 a vote to fast-track a bill that could help attract investors to power distributors that provide lighting for 13 million Brazilians. It also delayed taking up a separate proposal that would pave the way for a 100 billion reais (US$26.1 billion) oil auction. The bills would need Senate approval and to be signed into law by the president.

With just days left before a parliamentary recess and the country heading into an October election widely considered to be Brazil’s most unpredictable in decades, the future of the asset sales may now hinge on the election results. The delay is also a blow to Brazilian President Michel Temer’s already-battered plan to sell 57 state-owned assets to help solve a budget crisis.

“This will probably be dragged on for the next government to deal with,” Pedro Galdi, an investment analyst with Mirae Asset Wealth Management, said in a phone interview from Sao Paulo. “It all depends on politics and who will be the next president. The year is practically over.”

The crown jewel of Temer’s proposal was once the privatization of state-owned utility Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, known as Eletrobras. His plan for a share sale started to fall through in May, with the government failing to overcome stiff opposition in Congress to changing legislation.

Eletrobras still plans a July 26 auction of six troubled power distributors, responsible for 14 billion reais in losses to the company. The spinoff of the troubled distributors would make it less difficult for Eletrobras itself to be privatized by a future government. But their attractiveness to investors depends on the proposed legislative changes, especially for four distributors in the north of the country, Galdi said.

The best hope for unlocking value from energy-asset sales this year may rest with oil, Galdi said. That’s because both the government and Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the state-controlled oil and gas producer more popularly known as Petrobras, want the same thing — the transfer of some of Petrobras’s oil rights.

Petrobras is in negotiations with the government to review a contract that would pave the way for a multibillion-dollar auction planned for late November. But the proposal still hinges on legislation to undo nationalistic laws put in place by Worker’s Party governments. And House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said in an interview Tuesday that discussion on that bill was also postponed until July 3.