AUGUSTA – The Maine Democrats and Republicans have just held their party conventions. Now it’s the Green Independents’ turn.

Maine’s newest political party will open its three-day annual convention on June 21 at the Atrium hotel in Brunswick.

The Democrats concluded their two-day gathering on Saturday, and Maine GOP delegates convened May 3-4. Both parties held their biennial conventions in Augusta.

Greens convene every year instead of every two years to encourage participation in adoption of its platform, bylaws and other party business, Tim Sullivan of the Maine Greens said Monday.

“It’s a way of inducing our activist, grass-roots base,” said Sullivan. Every registered Green Independent who attends is considered a delegate to the convention, he said.

The Maine Greens, estimating a statewide membership of 10,000, will be active in this year’s state political races. They are fielding candidates for governor, a dozen legislative seats and one county office.

The Green candidate for governor, Jonathan Carter, has qualified for public financing through Maine’s Clean Election Act, meaning his campaign can get up to $900,000 to wage its campaign.

Carter, who also ran for governor in 1994, is scheduled to address his fellow Greens on June 22. The convention’s keynote speaker will be Greg Gerritt, a Maine Greens co-founder who is now a Providence, R.I., mayoral candidate.

The Maine Green party became a legally certified political party in December 1994. The Maine Greens formal recognition was extended by four years by Ralph Nader’s finish in his presidential balloting in Maine in 2000, Sullivan said.

The consumer advocate who ran under the Green Party banner won 5.7 percent of the vote in Maine, one of the best showings in the country. Nader won 3 percent of the vote nationally.

Maine is one of 22 states where the Green Party is officially recognized. The Green Party of the United States claims 223,321 registered voters.

The Greens see themselves as a progressive activist party that’s eager to chip away at a political system controlled by two parties.