Jakarta – Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, son of the late president Soeharto, has cofounded the National Republic mass organization, or Nasrep, another of its founders has said.

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Edi Waluyo said Tommy was involved in the founding of Nasrep, but he did not divulge Tommy's position in the party. Edi said Nasrep was not established as a party but that it would go in that direction.

"We will discuss it later after we finish discussing the organization. It will depend on Tommy's consent," he said after the opening of a national coordination meeting of Nasrep's founding council on Friday, as quoted by news portal kompas.com.

Tommy's picture was on a banner welcoming the group's founding council members at the meeting in Jakarta. Edi said the meeting would discuss developing the group into a political party.

He said the party would be established very soon because Nasrep wanted to be verified as a party by the General Elections Commission for the 2014 legislative election.