In addition, 11 incumbent Council members were re-elected until 2021 at the BWF Annual General Meeting in Australian city Gold Coast today.

Tang, who came third in the women’s singles at Barcelona 1992, a year after claiming her one and only world title, is joined as a newcomer by the Maldives’ Moosa Nashid, Mongolia’s Battushig Batbold, Nigeria’s Danlami Zama Sanchi, Scotland’s Emma Mason, Switzerland’s Robbert de Kock and Thailand’s Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul.

Those re-elected to serve another four years are Canada’s Wayne Somers, England’s Nora Perry, France’s Etienne Thobois, Lebanon’s Jassem Kanso, Malaysia’s Lim Teong Kiat, New Zealand’s Nigel Skelt, Russia’s Sergey Shakhray, Singapore’s Ng Yoke Weng, Slovakia’s Peter Tarcala, Spain’s David Cabello and Zimbabwe’s Chipo Zumburani.

The 27-member body also features BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer of Denmark, BWF Deputy President Gustavo Salazar Delgado of Peru and BWF vice-president for Para-badminton Paul Kurzo of Switzerland, all of whom were re-elected unopposed today.

The remaining six places on the BWF Council, which will guide the world governing body through the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cycle, are taken by five continental vice-presidents and the chair of the BWF Athletes’ Commission.

Twenty-six of the original 35 candidates stood for election with eight withdrawals since the close of nominations in late February. 

Those withdrawing were China’s Li Lingwei, Iran’s Mehdi Anvari, Ireland’s Richard Vaughan, Malaysia’s Mohamed Al-Amin Haji Abdul Majid, Mauritius’ Raj Gaya, Morocco’s Omar Bellali, Seychelles’ Tukebana Michel Bau and Sri Lanka’s Ranjit de Silva.

The BWF had reported earlier this week that there were only two withdrawals.

The other candidate whose name was removed from the list was BWF Council member and Badminton Association of India (BAI) President, Akhilesh Das Gupta, who passed away last month at the age of 56 after suffering a heart attack.

A new face will also be representing players on the BWF Council as outgoing chair of the BWF Athletes' Commission, Belgium’s Yuhan Tan, is set to step down next week, when three positions on the six-member panel will be up for grabs.

The other two members who have finished their four-year terms are Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg-Vittinghus and Indonesia’s Greysia Polii.

Voting is due to take place at the 2017 BWF Sudirman Cup in Gold Coast on Wednesday (May 24) with three women and six men vying for the vacant seats.

India's Rio 2016 silver medallist P.V Sindhu is joined on the shortlist by former world number one men's doubles player Koo Kien Keat of Malaysia.

World number 20 Marc Zwiebler of Germany, who won European gold at the 2012 Championships in Karlskrona in Sweden, is also in the running alongside Akvile Stapusaityte of Lithuania, Uganda's Edwin Ekiring and Luis Ramon Garrido Esquivel of Mexico.

Yoo Yeon Seong of South Korea, Nikhar Garg of India and Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour complete the list of candidates.