Syria’s de facto leader has said it could take up to four years to hold elections, offering the first potential timetable for a transition of power following the overthrow of the country’s longtime ruler, President Bashar Assad.

Ahmad al-Sharaa, who has been setting up an administration in Damascus, the capital, after leading the rebel offensive that toppled Assad, told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel that it will take time to set the conditions for a vote after decades of dictatorship.

A new constitution must be drafted first, he said, which “may take two or three years.”

“It should not be fast food,” he told the broadcaster, in an interview that aired Sunday. “It should be drafted with great care.”

Beyond reiterating that committees would be formed and specialized experts would be consulted, al-Sharaa did not offer much clarity on what the electoral process would look like. He noted though that “valid elections will require a comprehensive population census,” which also “requires time.”

Since toppling the Assad government on Dec. 8, rebels led by al-Sharaa have been working to assert authority from Damascus and build a system of governance. His new administration appointed a caretaker prime minister to lead a transitional government until March, and promised that a legal committee would draft a new constitution, without going into detail on how that would happen or what it might look like.

Al-Sharaa has lately ditched his military dress in favor of business suits and dropped his nom de guerre, in an apparent attempt to present himself more as a statesman than a rebel leader with past ties to Islamic extremists.

He also has expressed relatively moderate political positions and sought to reassure Syria’s many minorities. But some officials and analysts have questioned whether the approach represents posturing aimed at having his rebel group removed from the U.S. government’s list of terror organizations and reassuring foreign powers who distrust his group’s intentions.

The Biden administration has said it is watching the new Syrian government for signs that it is including minority groups in charting the country’s future governance, that it is not harboring terrorists and that it is facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid.