It competed in the 1999 elections (as the Africa Moral Party), but only in Western Cape province, achieving 9,513 votes and no seats; the next year, the AMP competed in elections for Cape Town metropolitan area and received 2 seats in the local legislature.

This plot had failed when the Independent Democrats (ID) joined the multi-party coalition and bolstered Zille's position.

The AMP attracted notable controversy, peaking in the 2006 elections, in which a pamphlet which derided the Democratic Alliance's national leader Tony Leon and his wife Michal as "supporters of the racist and murderous Israeli government" was being circulated through Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain.

[1] The matter has been referred to the Independent Electoral Commission and Cape Town police.

After Badih Chaaban was named AMP city councillor in August 2006, the party came into disrepute over Chaaban's corrupt past business dealings and his failed plot to topple Cape Town mayor Helen Zille.