King Abdullah of Jordan has warned that it will take “at least two or three years” to establish mature political parties in the kingdom, suggesting that any meaningful democratic reform – including a shift towards governments elected by parliament – will happen only slowly.

His latest intervention, in a speech on Tuesday, is significant because many Jordanian officials believe that an overhaul of the party regime is necessary before other reform steps can be taken.

The monarch’s comments came just two days after he promised in a televised speech that governments would in future not be appointed by the royal court and would instead be elected by parliament.

However, King Abdullah gave no indication when that change would happen, disappointing opposition activists. The king on Sunday also gave no timeline for a raft of other proposed reforms such as the planned overhaul of Jordan’s election law and the law governing political parties.

On Tuesday, in a speech that stressed the need for national parties with broad political agendas, King Abdullah told a youth convention: “If you start now building political parties, you might need at least two or three years to render these parties mature and well enough established to make gains in legislative elections and, subsequently, to implement their programmes on the ground.”

He added: “In other words, we should start now for there is no time to waste.”