Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat | Riccardo Savi/Getty Images Malta calls snap elections Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told crowds in Valletta that he wanted ‘to continue moving forward.’

Maltese voters are heading to the polls on 3 June.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat asked the president to dissolve parliament at a Labour party meeting held Monday in Valletta and later called the election in a speech to crowds in the capital.

“I don’t want to stop halfway. I want to continue moving forward. I am here to ask you whether you want to run with me. Do you want to walk this road with me?” he said.

Muscat announced that he had informed President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca that he would ask her to dissolve parliament and call an election on 3 June.

“I am serene. And that serenity comes from the fact that we know that we’ve worked night and day for the good of this country. We are ready to serve better. There are those who ask us to wait but the country is already showing us that things have started to slow down. I don’t need to wait because I know I’m telling the truth," he said, according to Malta Today. “We are serene because we know that others can only come against us with lies.”

Muscat had promised to resign this morning if a government enquiry found a connection between him or his wife and offshore companies in the Panama Papers, according to the Times of Malta. The Panama Papers are a leak of 11.5m files from the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca.

Thousands of people took to the streets in Valletta to protest against corruption in 2016 after the investigation revealed the hidden assets of high-ranking Maltese political figures, Konrad Mizzi, a former minister and Labour party deputy leader, and Keith Schembri, the prime minister's chief of staff.

However, allegations continue to plague the current administration. In April, Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia released documents allegedly showing that Michelle Muscat, the current prime minister's wife, was the beneficial owner of Egrant, a secret company in Panama.

The prime minister's office denied the allegations. On April 23, opposition leader Simon Busuttil called on the prime minister to resign.

The Panama Papers database contained 714 companies connected to Malta. The investigation listed nearly 214,000 offshore entities created in 21 jurisdictions and is the largest ever information release on offshore companies and the people behind them, such as owners names.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Muscat had resigned. He remains as caretaker prime minister after the dissolution of parliament.

This version also removes an incorrect reference to a snap election in 2011.