The son of the late President Suharto was not physically present at Friday's debut of the party, but a photograph of him in sunglasses and a baseball cap was ubiquitous on the walls alongside the party's symbol.

Although it remained unclear whether or not the party is simply riding the coattails of Tommy's fame, one party cofounder insisted that Tommy was the real deal.

Retired Maj. Gen. Edi Waluyo, a former lawmaker, said on Friday that the party would be officially launched soon and was expected to run in the 2014 presidential polls. The party will only be formally launched after it has been registered with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

Tommy, Edi said, and a string of senior political figures had become concerned with the lackluster performance of the existing political parties and were listening to the people's wishes and complaints. In a speech at the event, Edi said the party's founders had discussed with Tommy the need for a new party in Indonesia.

"Tommy agreed. This is a shared commitment," Edi said. The registration deadline, he said, was in July. "Our expectation is that we can complete all the processes and the verification procedures to contest in the 2014 presidential polls," he said.

Edi emphasized that the party had yet to decide whether or not Tommy would hold the position of party chair. Neither Tommy nor his lawyers could be reached for comment.

A revised law on political parties tightens the requirements for parties to contest elections. The most significant change is that parties intending to run in the 2014 election now have six months to prove they have 990 members spread throughout the country's 33 provinces. Parties previously only needed 50 members to be officially recognized.

The amended law requires parties to have at least 30 registered members – married or at least 21 years of age – in each of the 33 provinces, or a total of 990 individual members.

Siti Zuhro, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, told the Jakarta Globe that competition would be "very tough" for the National Republic Party.

She said Indonesians were better-educated voters after the 2009 presidential elections, and that to be elected as a serious political party, members should have a clear vision and ideology. Siti reminded voters that Tommy had failed "in his earlier political test, when he lost Golkar Party chairmanship in 2009."