ARLINGTON — Wadi and Karlin Lissa traveled to downtown Seattle on Sunday to vote in a referendum that likely will result in the secession of southern Sudan from the north.

The Lissas, who hold dual U.S.-Sudanese citizenship, cast ballots along with hundreds of other Sudanese expatriates. The voting continues this week. Election results are not expected until February.

“There was a lot of emotion and excitement at the polling place,” Wadi Lissa said. “We had to wait 45 minutes, but that gave us time to visit with other southern Sudanese and hear their stories.”

The people the Lissas met in Seattle and the friends and family members they have phoned back home all support independence from northern Sudan. All the years of loss to violence in the country has been too much to bear, and people want a change, he said.

Though they have been away from their native country for more than 12 years, the Lissas remember the violence as if it happened yesterday. Many relatives and friends have died.

The secession referendum was part of the 2005 peace agreement aimed at ending the 50-year civil war in Sudan. The people of the south are primarily Christian or tribal animists while the well-established north is mostly Islamic.

It won’t be easy to build a new country, because south Sudan is poor, has little infrastructure and is one of the most uneducated regions of the world, he said. Still there is much hope.

“Though I have voted here in the U.S., this is the first time I have ever been able to vote for anything regarding the Sudan,” Wadi Lissa said. “It is historic, we are fortunate to be part of redrawing the map of Africa. And this is just the beginning.”

His friends and family in Sudan are glad that former President Jimmy Carter is on hand to monitor the voting there.

“His presence gives us confidence. We all want an uncorrupted, transparent and peaceful election,” Wadi Lissa said. “It’s been an amazing success so far.”

Karlin Lissa, 35, works as a certified nursing assistant while studying for a nursing degree at Everett Community College. Wadi Lissa, 39, a biologist, is employed with a Woodinville biotech company. They have four children, the oldest of whom attend Arlington schools.

The Lissas are active in their Arlington church and in a group of Sudanese-Americans who are raising money to build schools in their homeland. They believe education is the only way for the people of southern Sudan to move ahead from the poverty and the violence they have always known.

They tried to visit their family in Africa before Christmas, but were advised not to travel because of lingering violence in Sudan. Only about half of the $8,000 fortune they spent for airline tickets six months ago was refunded.

The Lissa family is working hard to earn more travel money and now is looking forward to visiting a new country in what is now their native southern Sudan.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.