Riz Ahmed wants elections to be scrapped, suggests choosing leaders through ‘randomised lottery system’ | Hollywood
Updated on: Aug 24, 2025 02:40 pm IST
Riz Ahmed suggested an alternative system to choose leaders during a recent interaction.
Academy Award-winning actor Riz Ahmed has an interesting take on how to revamp American politics. The actor, who has been busy promoting his film Relay, was the latest guest on the episode of the TikTok series Subway Takes, where he shared that if it were up to him, he would get rid of elections entirely and elect leaders through a ‘randomised lottery system’.
What Riz said
During the interaction, which was shared on Instagram, Riz shared, “We need to stop having all elections of any kind. And we need to choose all of our politicians and leaders through a completely randomised lottery system.” When the host of the Subway Takes series said that he “100%” disagrees with Riz’s idea, the actor explained himself further.
‘The bar is already in hell’
He added, “First of all, no one really votes that much anyway. The turnout is pretty low. Second of all, what are you afraid of if we do that? That we might get bad politicians? You see how stupid it sounds when we say it? Can it get worse? The bar is already in hell. Like the guy whose name you can’t pronounce, is in! Substitute teacher, that guy! I figure that the politicians are all trying to come to an agreement! And a lot of the time, it is about common sense. This way, we would not have political parties anymore. No campaign finance. So we can get rid of all that… Right now, we have got crazy people who want power, but the worst-case scenario is we have crazy people who just want to go home. The people who can actually make things run, they are still there.”
Reacting to Riz’s take, someone commented, “100% disagree with this take. 100% agree with everything he said.” Another said, “Totally agree, and this concept is called a lottocracy. Pioneered by Helen Landemore in her book Open Democracy!!” A comment said, “How did he convince me of this by the end?” asked another.
Riz Ahmed’s upcoming film
Riz was most recently seen in the thriller film Relay, which was produced and directed by David Mackenzie and written by Justin Piasecki. It also stars Lily James and Sam Worthington.
